Madhesh, Federalism and Social Citizenship

Citizenship Chapter 139 examines federalism through the everyday institutions that make citizenship usable. Madhesh was central to Nepal’s transition from a unitary state because movements in the Tarai-Madhesh linked regional identity and political inclusion to demands for state restructuring. The Constitution of 2015 created a three-tier federal democratic republic, and the eight districts from Saptari to Parsa now form Madhesh Province with Janakpurdham as its capital and 136 constitutionally recognized local governments. Yet a province is not social citizenship by itself. Rights become real through citizenship certificates, birth registration, schools, health services, social-security payments, language access, elected representation, budgets and grievance mechanisms. The chapter therefore asks not simply whether federalism exists, but how federal institutions alter the relationship between households and the state. The subject requires careful separation of legal levels and evidence types. Citizenship is a federal legal status; civil registration is a local administrative function; social protection combines federal financing and rules with local identification and bank delivery; education and health involve overlapping responsibilities; and provincial autonomy depends heavily on intergovernmental fiscal transfers. The chapter also distinguishes Madhesh as a province from historical Mithila and from the wider Tarai. Madhesh Province contains Maithili, Bhojpuri, Bajjika, Nepali, Urdu, Tharu and other linguistic and social populations and cannot be treated as a single caste, language or political constituency. The analysis uses constitutional texts, current amended citizenship law, provincial administrative records, Census 2021, fiscal-federalism studies and service-delivery evidence rather than assuming that political recognition automatically produces equal outcomes. 139.1 Federalism is a question of social citizenship, not only territorial design Federalism matters to ordinary life when it changes who can decide, who can be reached, and who can be held responsible for public action. In Madhesh, the 2015 constitutional order did more than draw a provincial boundary. It created a provincial government and strengthened constitutionally recognized local governments that now participate in education, health, roads, agriculture, civil registration, local taxation, social protection administration and cultural policy. Social citizenship is therefore wider than nationality. It includes the practical ability to register a birth, obtain documents, attend school, use health services, receive an allowance, speak to an office in an understandable language, vote, seek information and challenge an arbitrary decision. Federalism can shorten the distance between citizen and state, but it can also multiply offices and jurisdictional uncertainty. The relevant test is not whether three tiers exist on paper; it is whether people can navigate them and whether responsibility is clear when a service fails. 139.2 Madhesh is central to Nepal’s federal question because demands for inclusion preceded the province The federal map cannot be understood without the political history that preceded it. During and after the 2006 democratic transition, Madheshi movements challenged a state structure widely perceived in the plains as centralized and insufficiently representative of Madheshi identities, languages and interests. The 2007 movement helped make federal restructuring an unavoidable national agenda, while later disputes concerned electoral representation, provincial boundaries, inclusion and citizenship. These movements were internally diverse: parties, caste groups, Dalits, Muslims, Tharus, women, linguistic communities and local HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II elites did not always define Madhesh or political priorities in the same way. A regional history should therefore avoid turning ‘Madhesh’ into a single political subject. The historical significance lies in the shift of the constitutional vocabulary itself—from administration by a unitary centre toward federalism, proportional inclusion and territorially grounded subnational government. 139.3 The 2015 Constitution created three constitutionally recognized levels of government Nepal’s Constitution of 2015 institutionalized a federal democratic republic with federal, provincial and local levels. The change was structural because local government was no longer merely a delegated administrative extension of Kathmandu. Constitutional schedules allocate exclusive and concurrent competences across the tiers, while intergovernmental fiscal arrangements finance many functions through revenue sharing and grants. The resulting system is neither a simple hierarchy nor a loose federation. Federal law and national standards remain decisive in areas such as citizenship, foreign affairs and major taxation; provinces exercise policy and administrative responsibilities assigned to them; and local levels provide many services closest to households. Overlap is unavoidable in education, health, agriculture, roads, water, disaster management and social protection. The quality of federalism therefore depends on coordination, legal clarity and administrative capacity as much as on constitutional boundaries. 139.4 The federal settlement answered some Madhesh demands while leaving other disputes alive Federalization created an institutional space in which the eight districts from Saptari to Parsa could be governed as one province, later known as Madhesh Province, with Janakpurdham as its capital. This was a major transformation from the earlier unitary structure. Yet the 2015 constitutional settlement was also contested. Madheshi and Tharu parties and activists raised objections concerning provincial boundaries, representation, citizenship and inclusion, while supporters of the constitution emphasized its elected origin, federal architecture and broad set of fundamental rights. Both facts belong in the historical record: the constitution was a democratic milestone and also a disputed settlement. The subsequent decade should therefore be studied not as the end of the Madhesh question but as a new institutional phase in which claims once directed almost entirely at the central state are also negotiated through provincial assemblies, municipalities, courts, commissions and fiscal systems. 14311431 GAJENDRA THAKUR Figure 552 — Federalism as a three-tier social-citizenship architecture: rights and services become usable through coordination among federal, provincial and local institutions. 139.5 A province creates a new arena of political responsibility Before federalization, many decisions affecting the Tarai were filtered through central ministries and district administration. The provincial level creates an additional elected arena with a chief minister, council of ministers, provincial assembly, ministries, laws, budget and civil service. It can frame regionally specific priorities in agriculture, roads, tourism, education, culture, industry and social development within constitutional limits. This matters symbolically as well as administratively: Janakpurdham is not only a religious and cultural centre but also a capital where provincial political claims are made visible. At the same time, a province cannot guarantee autonomy merely by existing. It needs predictable finances, personnel, legal competence and the ability to implement budgets. The distance between constitutional authority and administrative capacity is therefore one of the central themes of post-2015 Madhesh. 139.6 Madhesh Province consists of eight districts and 136 local governments Official provincial sources describe Madhesh as comprising Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara and Parsa. Within them are 136 local levels: one metropolitan city, three sub- metropolitan cities, seventy-three municipalities and fifty-nine rural municipalities. This matters because many experiences of federalism occur at the ward or municipal office rather than the provincial capital. A birth is registered locally; a local road may be built by a municipality; school management and basic health services involve local institutions; social-security beneficiaries interact with ward offices and banks. The scale also creates coordination problems. A province with 136 local governments does not have one local administrative reality. Capacity, revenue, staffing, digital connectivity and political competition differ sharply between Birgunj, Janakpurdham, district towns and rural municipalities. 139.7 Electoral federalism multiplies representative channels The province has thirty-two constituencies for the federal House of Representatives and sixty-four first- past-the-post constituencies for the Provincial Assembly, in addition to proportional-representation seats created under electoral law. Local governments add mayors or chairs, deputies, ward chairs and councillors. The multiplication of electoral arenas can widen access to politics and create new leadership careers. It can also produce complex accountability: a citizen may ask a federal member, provincial member, mayor and ward chair about the same road or school even when formal responsibility belongs primarily to one tier. Federalism therefore increases representation more reliably than it increases clarity. Political education requires citizens and representatives alike to understand the assignment of functions, budgets and legal powers. 139.8 Proportional inclusion is a constitutional principle, not a synonym for demographic proportionality in every institution Nepal’s constitutional order links equality and social justice to proportional inclusion of groups historically excluded from state structures, including Madheshis, Dalits, women, indigenous nationalities, Tharus, Muslims and others identified in constitutional and statutory frameworks. Electoral design, party lists and public-service rules operationalize inclusion in different ways. These mechanisms should not be described as if every institution must reproduce population shares mechanically. They are legal techniques for broadening representation within specific rules. Their effectiveness must be evaluated by who actually enters decision-making positions, which portfolios they control, whether internal party selection is open, and HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II whether descriptive representation changes public priorities. Inclusion is therefore both a numerical and an institutional question. 139.9 Local federalism has expanded women’s formal political presence Nepal’s local electoral design reserves positions and structures candidacy rules in ways that have brought very large numbers of women into municipal and ward government. In Madhesh this creates a new political infrastructure for women who previously encountered strong barriers to elected office. Formal presence, however, does not automatically equal substantive power. Deputy positions can be marginalized, party leadership may remain male dominated, household responsibilities constrain time, and caste or class inequalities shape whose voice carries weight. The historically important change is that women’s participation is now embedded in routine local institutions rather than depending only on exceptional leaders. The next analytical step is to examine budgets, committee leadership, administrative access and policy outcomes rather than counting seats alone. 139.10 Federal institutions can widen representation while reproducing social inequalities inside the represented groups Madhesh is internally differentiated by caste, class, religion, language, gender, rural–urban location and landholding. A politics that increases representation of Madheshis at the national level can still leave Dalits, poor women, landless households or smaller linguistic communities underrepresented within Madhesh. The same applies to Muslim, Tharu and caste-based constituencies: no umbrella category is socially homogeneous. Federalism therefore shifts the scale at which inequality must be examined. Representation of a province in Kathmandu and representation within the province are separate questions. A socially grounded account asks who reaches party lists, public employment, school management committees, cooperatives, municipal contracts and welfare offices—not merely whether a regional identity has achieved institutional recognition. 14331433 GAJENDRA THAKUR Figure 553 — Madhesh Province’s post-federal administrative field: eight districts, 136 local levels, 32 federal constituencies and 64 provincial first-past-the-post constituencies. 139.11 Citizenship documents connect constitutional nationality to everyday rights Citizenship in Nepal has unusually visible documentary consequences. A citizenship certificate is commonly required for voting registration, passports, many forms of higher education or public employment, formal property and financial transactions, and access to other identity documents. In Madhesh, where cross-border marriage and family networks are extensive, questions of descent, parentage and nationality have therefore carried immediate social effects. The historian must distinguish three levels: the constitutional definition of citizenship, the statutory procedures for obtaining a certificate, and the administrative practice through which district or local offices verify documents. Difficulties at any one level can turn a formal constitutional entitlement into delayed education, employment, banking or political participation. 139.12 The Constitution’s citizenship provisions combine descent, birthplace history and federal statutory rules Part 2 of the Constitution guarantees that no Nepali citizen shall be deprived of the right to obtain citizenship and sets out several routes and conditions. It recognizes citizenship by descent where the father or mother was a citizen at birth, contains special provisions for children of citizens who had obtained citizenship by birth before the Constitution, addresses children born in Nepal to a Nepali mother where the father cannot be identified, and leaves acquisition, reacquisition and termination details to federal law. These provisions are legally technical and socially consequential. They should not be reduced to a slogan about an ‘open border’ or regional identity. Citizenship is national law; cross-border kinship does not itself confer nationality. The social question is whether the legal route appropriate to a person’s circumstances can be documented and completed. 139.13 The 2023 citizenship amendment removed a major post-constitutional blockage In May 2023 the President authenticated legislation amending the Citizenship Act. One of its major effects was to operationalize the constitutional route for children of persons who had previously received citizenship by birth, a category that had faced prolonged difficulty obtaining citizenship certificates after reaching adulthood. The amendment also addressed citizenship by descent for a person born in Nepal to a Nepali mother where the father could not be identified, subject to statutory conditions. The importance in Madhesh was substantial because earlier citizenship-by-birth distribution had been especially relevant in the Tarai. The amendment should nevertheless be described as a legal change, not as proof that every administrative difficulty disappeared. Document verification, parentage, residence and local implementation remained important. 139.14 A second citizenship amendment was authenticated in 2025, showing that the legal framework is still evolving Federal Parliament records show that the Nepal Citizenship (Second Amendment) Bill, 2081 was passed through both houses, repassed after return, and authenticated on 5 Ashoj 2082. The authenticated text adds further provisions for cases in which one parent had obtained citizenship by birth while the other parent died HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II or could not be contacted before obtaining citizenship, and it addresses additional parentage circumstances. For a contemporary history, the point is methodological as well as legal: citizenship law in 2026 cannot be described accurately using only the 2006 Act or the 2023 amendment. The framework has continued to change. Any claim about an individual pathway must therefore be checked against the current amended statute rather than inferred from older political debate. 139.15 Gender remains central to citizenship because parentage rules are not socially neutral Citizenship debates in Nepal have repeatedly focused on whether mothers and fathers transmit nationality on equal terms in all circumstances. The Constitution permits citizenship in the name of either parent, but detailed routes for children of Nepali mothers, foreign fathers, unidentified fathers or parents with different citizenship histories have generated legal and political controversy. These questions matter in Madhesh because marriage across the India–Nepal border is common and because women may face greater difficulty assembling documentary evidence after marriage, migration, abandonment or widowhood. A rights-based analysis should be precise: it should identify the specific statutory route and documentary requirement rather than describe all cross-border families as ‘stateless’ or all citizenship administration as discriminatory. The enduring historical issue is how gendered family structures interact with documentary law. 139.16 Birth registration is a foundational form of social citizenship even though it is not citizenship itself A birth certificate records a civil event; it does not by itself establish Nepali nationality. Yet early registration is crucial because it creates an official identity trail used for schooling, age verification, social protection and later documentation. Nepal’s children’s-rights legislation recognizes a child’s right to a name, identity and birth registration, including procedures where a father is unidentified. Federalization placed much of civil registration at the local level, making the ward office a critical gateway to the documentary state. The distinction between registration and citizenship must remain clear, but so must their administrative connection. Delayed or inaccurate birth registration can make later procedures harder, especially for poor, mobile or socially marginalized households. 139.17 Digital civil registration has changed the infrastructure through which local citizenship is administered The nationwide Strengthening Systems for Social Protection and Civil Registration programme was implemented during Nepal’s federal transition and helped move vital-event registration from paper files toward networked local systems. By 2023 the World Bank reported that more than 97 percent of wards were registering vital events online. This is a major state-capacity change: records can be verified across places, duplicate entries can be identified and local planning can draw on more consistent data. Digitization, however, transfers some exclusion risks rather than eliminating them. Connectivity failures, mismatched spellings, limited digital literacy and lack of assistance can make an online system harder for some users. The relevant standard is therefore assisted digital access, not digitalization for its own sake. 14351435 GAJENDRA THAKUR Figure 554 — Legal identity becomes usable social citizenship through an administrative chain; each step can create access or exclusion. 139.18 Social-security allowances make citizenship material through regular transfers Nepal’s Social Security Allowance system provides cash benefits to categories including older people, single women, persons with disabilities, children in specified groups and members of endangered ethnicities. The federal transition coincided with a shift toward banking these payments. World Bank reporting indicates that about 3.5 million beneficiaries nationally were receiving allowances through bank accounts and that electronic payment reduced duplication and manual cash handling. For Madhesh households, the significance is larger than the transfer amount alone. A predictable allowance can support food, medicine, mobility and a degree of personal financial autonomy. Yet bank distance, documentation, biometric or account problems and physical disability can make formal coverage difficult to use. Social citizenship must therefore be measured at the point of receipt, not only in beneficiary databases. 139.19 The ward office has become one of the most important faces of the federal state For many residents, federalism is encountered less through constitutional language than through a ward secretary, municipal office, school, health post or local bank. Local governments certify residence, register civil events, recommend documents, manage local roads, administer many social programmes, raise some local revenues and coordinate disaster response. This proximity can increase accountability because citizens know where the office is and can identify elected representatives. It can also intensify patronage if access depends on personal networks. The democratic value of local federalism therefore depends on transparent procedures, published fees, grievance channels, accessible records and public hearings. Proximity is an opportunity for accountability, not a guarantee of it. 139.20 Citizens do not necessarily know which tier provides which service A Survey of the Nepali People in 2022 provides a useful caution against assuming that constitutional restructuring automatically produces administrative literacy. In Madhesh Province, 49.6 percent of respondents said they were aware of services provided by local government, compared with 18.9 percent for provincial government and 18.2 percent for federal government. These figures measure awareness, not HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II satisfaction, effectiveness or trust, and they come from a survey rather than an administrative census. Even so, the pattern is revealing: the level closest to daily life was much more visible than the newer provincial tier. Federalism requires not only devolution but a public map of responsibility so citizens know where to take a problem and whom to hold accountable. 139.21 Education, health and welfare expose the difficulty of concurrent responsibility Schools and health services show why federalism cannot be understood through exclusive powers alone. National law and standards, provincial planning, local management, teacher or health-worker personnel systems, conditional grants and infrastructure budgets can intersect in the same institution. When outcomes improve, several tiers may claim credit; when a building, medicine supply or staffing system fails, responsibility may be passed between them. The constitutional promise of social rights therefore depends on intergovernmental coordination. Clear expenditure assignments, interoperable data and predictable transfers are as important as formal rights. Madhesh’s relatively weak education and health indicators make this coordination especially consequential because institutional ambiguity falls hardest on households that cannot substitute private services. 139.22 Language access is part of social citizenship even before it becomes a question of official-language status Madhesh Province is linguistically plural. The 2021 census profile records large Maithili, Bhojpuri, Bajjika, Nepali, Urdu and other language populations. Provincial assembly law permits members to participate in their mother tongue even where official working languages are defined separately. For citizens, the practical issue is whether forms, notices, health messages, school communication and grievance procedures can be understood. Language rights are not exhausted by symbolic recognition. A municipality can publish a Nepali notice that is legally valid yet poorly accessible to residents who read another language more confidently. Chapter 140 examines language in public life in detail; here the point is narrower: comprehensible administration is one component of equal access to the state. 139.23 E-government can reduce distance while creating a new digital queue Madhesh’s provincial e-governance planning recognizes the rapid spread of mobile and internet use and the growing use of websites by public agencies. Online applications, budget portals, tax payment, civil registration and information disclosure can reduce travel and create searchable records. Yet digital government can reproduce inequalities in devices, literacy, connectivity, language and gendered phone access. A web portal that technically exists is not automatically an accessible service. Good federal digital governance therefore needs assisted counters, mobile-friendly design, clear status tracking, downloadable records and offline alternatives. Digital systems are most valuable when they reduce discretion and repeated visits rather than simply moving a paper form onto a screen. 139.24 Fiscal federalism determines whether constitutional competences can become services A province or municipality cannot exercise policy autonomy without resources. Nepal’s fiscal federalism combines own-source revenues, revenue sharing, fiscal equalization grants, conditional grants, special grants and complementary grants. The Ministry of Finance’s Fiscal Federalism Coordination Division is explicitly tasked with revenue sharing and intergovernmental transfers, while annual transfer documents allocate 14371437 GAJENDRA THAKUR resources to provinces and local levels. This architecture is central to social citizenship because salaries, roads, school buildings, health facilities and local programmes require predictable financing. The constitutional question ‘who has the power?’ must therefore be paired with the fiscal question ‘who has the money, under what conditions, and when does it arrive?’ 139.25 Provincial and local governments remain substantially dependent on intergovernmental transfers The World Bank’s 2024 Fiscal Federalism Update found continuing high reliance by local governments on intergovernmental fiscal transfers and noted that conditional grants formed a large share of local revenue. Conditional grants can protect national priorities, but excessive earmarking can narrow local discretion and make bottom-up planning less meaningful. Fiscal equalization is intended to give subnational governments more flexible capacity, especially where own-source revenue is weak. Madhesh contains both commercially active cities and poorer rural municipalities, so a uniform expectation of local revenue capacity would be misleading. Equal citizenship across territory requires some redistribution because the cost of providing a school or health service does not disappear when the local tax base is small. 139.26 Budget execution and administrative capacity are part of the federal bargain Fiscal autonomy is not measured only by the size of a budget. The 2024 Fiscal Federalism Update documented substantial provincial and local underspending and persistent weaknesses in planning, procurement, internal control and timely financial reporting. These are not uniquely Madhesh problems, but they shape how provincial government is judged. An unspent capital budget can mean a delayed road, school or irrigation project even when funds were formally appropriated. Capacity includes engineers, accountants, procurement staff, data systems and legal clarity, not simply political willingness. The creation of provincial civil-service legislation and Madhesh’s local-service law are therefore significant institutional steps because federalism requires a durable subnational administrative cadre rather than continual dependence on ad hoc staffing. HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II Figure 555 — Madhesh Province respondents reporting awareness of services provided by each level of government, 2022; awareness is not a measure of satisfaction or service quality. 139.27 The open India–Nepal border creates mobility without merging citizenship regimes Madhesh’s social world crosses the international border through marriage, pilgrimage, labour, trade, education and kinship. The open-border relationship allows forms of movement that are unusually easy by international standards, but legal nationality, voting, public employment, property rules, welfare programmes and civil registration remain governed by the two states. This distinction is essential. A family may be socially transborder and legally divided between two citizenship regimes. Cross-border marriage can expand kinship and economic opportunity while also making document trails more complex. Federalism inside Nepal does not internationalize provincial authority: citizenship remains a federal competence and foreign relations remain national. Madhesh’s borderland character therefore creates a layered citizenship environment rather than a single cross-border citizenship. 139.28 Portability becomes crucial when citizens are mobile Migration tests social citizenship because public systems are often built around fixed residence. A Madhesh worker may spend months in Kathmandu, the Gulf or India while family members remain in the village; students move for education; women change residence after marriage; floods can force temporary displacement. Benefits, civil records, health coverage and voter registration do not all follow the same residence rules. Digitized national records and banked transfers can improve portability, but local certification remains important for many procedures. The future effectiveness of federalism will partly depend on whether a citizen can move without losing access to documentation or entitlements. Mobility should therefore be treated as a normal feature of the region’s society, not an exception to be handled case by case. 139.29 Federalism has changed the location of politics more clearly than it has equalized social outcomes By 2026, federalism has unmistakably changed Nepal’s institutional landscape. Madhesh has an elected provincial government, a provincial assembly, ministries, laws, a budget and a dense network of constitutionally recognized local governments. Civil registration and social-protection delivery have been modernized, women and historically excluded groups have more formal routes into representation, and subnational planning is routine. Yet poverty, unequal schooling, gendered documentation problems, caste exclusion, weak administrative capacity and dependence on transfers remain. These are not evidence that federalism ‘failed’; nor does the existence of provincial institutions prove that inclusion has been achieved. The appropriate historical assessment separates institutional transformation from distributive outcomes and asks which mechanisms have changed, for whom, and with what measurable effect. 139.30 Conclusion: social citizenship is the everyday test of the federal settlement The most important consequence of federalism in Madhesh is that the state is now encountered through several elected and administrative layers rather than a single distant centre. This has created new arenas for representation, language claims, budgeting, service delivery and accountability. Citizenship law remains federal, but the usefulness of citizenship is experienced locally through registration, schools, health care, allowances, roads, digital records and accessible offices. The federal settlement therefore succeeds or fails in 14391439 GAJENDRA THAKUR ordinary transactions as much as in constitutional debate. Madhesh’s experience shows why social citizenship must be studied as an institutional chain: rights, documents, money, personnel, language, mobility and grievance mechanisms must connect. Federalism has created that chain; the continuing historical task is to make every link reliable and inclusive. Table 139.1 — Evidence architecture for analysing Madhesh, federalism and social citizenship Evidence source What it establishes Use in Chapter 139 Main limitation Constitution of Nepal three-tier state structure, legal architecture of federal constitutional assignment does 2015 fundamental rights, and social citizenship not show implementation citizenship and competence quality schedules Citizenship Act + current statutory routes and citizenship-document analysis individual eligibility remains 2023/2025 amendments documentary rules fact-specific Madhesh Province 8 districts, 136 local levels, institutional geography some profile indicators are official portals ministries and provincial laws dated and should not be treated as current census estimates Election Commission constituencies, voters and representative citizenship voter registry is not the same as Nepal election administration total adult population NPHC 2021 / Madhesh population, language and demographic context census categories do not profile household structure measure service access or political influence World Bank federalism fiscal transfers, capacity, implementation of fiscal mostly national/subnational- updates underspending and PFM federalism system evidence; not every indicator is Madhesh-specific Civil registration / SSA online registration and administrative social national programme results programme records banked social-security citizenship should not be read as province- delivery specific coverage rates Survey of Nepali People awareness of services by citizen-facing visibility of sample survey; awareness is not 2022 government tier federalism satisfaction or quality Provincial budgets and Madhesh policy priorities, subnational state formation appropriation is not execution laws appropriations and service institutions Historical and scholarly Madhesh movements, long-run interpretation interpretive works differ in literature inclusion and constitutional terminology and political contestation framing