Families who have lost hope of finding relatives missing in the Rasuwa floods have started performing final Hindu funeral rituals using symbolic bodies made from kusha grass.
After completing the rituals, some families have gone to ward offices to register their relatives as dead or to seek official confirmation of their deaths.
But local authorities say they cannot officially register the deaths of people whose bodies have not been found or identified. They say current laws do not clearly explain what should be done in such cases.
Ward offices have asked the government to introduce a special system for registering the deaths of people who disappeared in the floods.
The Rasuwa District Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Committee decided last week to contact the Ministry of Home Affairs about the issue.
The committee said the current process for registering deaths and other official records of missing people is difficult and time-consuming. This has also caused problems for families trying to claim insurance or obtain official proof of death.
The committee has asked the government to create a faster process for such cases.
Rasuwa Assistant Chief District Officer Dipesh Rijal said the Home Ministry was informed after local governments in the district became unsure about how to handle missing-person cases.
Jairam Upreti, chief administrative officer of Uttargaya Rural Municipality, said ward offices were struggling because there was no body to confirm the death.
“Families of missing people have performed the last rites after giving up hope of finding them. Some have now come to register their deaths. But what should be recorded as the cause of death? How can we register the death of someone who remains missing?” Upreti said.
He said families had completed their religious duties even though the bodies of their relatives had not been identified.
“Legally, we are in a difficult situation,” he said.
Upreti said the issue had been discussed several times by the district disaster management committee.
He said ward offices could currently issue death-related documents only when a body had been found and identified.
The issue affects other districts too
Nuwakot Chief District Officer Shambhu Prasad Regmi said the problem was not limited to Rasuwa and Nuwakot.
Authorities also have problems confirming the identities of people from other districts who disappeared in the floods.
“Families whose members have gone missing can only say that their relatives are missing. Until a body is found, there is always hope,” Regmi said.
He said many families did not want to officially declare their relatives dead because they still hoped they might be alive.
Officials have also discussed whether missing people should receive some of the facilities available to people who have been officially declared dead. But there is no clear procedure for this.
Regmi said there was also no clear rule about whose information should be accepted when an entire family goes missing.
The problem could become bigger because people from more than half of Nepal’s 77 districts were affected by the floods.
What does the law say?
Section 40 of the National Civil Code Act, 2017 deals with missing people and the declaration of death.
Normally, a person can be presumed dead if they have been missing continuously for 12 years or if there has been no proof that they are alive for 12 years.
The law was introduced partly because many people disappeared during Nepal’s decade-long conflict.
There is also a legal option for people who are believed to have died in disasters or accidents.
Under Section 40(4), a family member or another concerned person can go to court and ask for a declaration of death.
The court can make a decision after examining evidence about when and where the person disappeared and the circumstances surrounding the disappearance.
Officials in Rasuwa and Nuwakot say asking flood-affected families to go to court would make the situation even harder for them.
They believe the government should help families complete the registration process instead of making them go through a difficult legal procedure.
Families may have to provide details about the disappearance, prove the identity of the missing person and show documents related to government efforts to find them.
Local representatives say families could also be asked to provide witnesses and other evidence.
Similar cases in the past
Nepal faced a similar problem after the 2015 earthquake. Around 198 people went missing in landslides and avalanches in the hills and mountains.
Officials say that situation was easier to manage because bodies were generally found at the disaster sites and identification was easier.
Another example is the Jure landslide in Sindhupalchok on August 2, 2014. Three settlements were buried after the landslide swept them into the river.
A total of 145 people were reported missing, but only 33 bodies were recovered. The government later declared the remaining missing people dead.
A senior Home Ministry official said the government may need to make a new decision to solve the current problem.
The official said the government had previously declared missing people dead even without a clear legal basis.
“There are clearer grounds now compared to that time,” the official said.
He added that the federal government would probably have to make a decision to help families and local authorities resolve the issue.