Outlines the effects of the Citizenship Law and the Marriage Act on the legal resident status of thousands of Bhutanese families. Since the 1980s, the Buddhist-centered Drukpa community, which dominates the Royal Government of Bhutan, has enforced increasingly restrictive policies aimed at reducing the Hindu-based culture of the southern Lhotsampas community. The Drukpas perceive the potential for a demand for democratic reform from the Lhotsampas. The Citizenship Act, enacted in 1985, declared citizenship based on the nationality of the mother. Many Lhotsampas men married women from India or Nepal since their cultures are more aligned. Additional restrictions demanded that citizens provide documentation of their status on December 31, 1958, and many people did not have these documents and were declared illegal immigrants. The Marriage Act targeted Lhotsampas men married to non-Bhutanese women. The men no longer were able to vote, receive civil service promotions, and were denied educational and business opportunities. The enforcement of the arbitrary and discriminatory laws stripped over 60,000 children, or 20 percent of the Bhutanese population, of their citizenship.
