Senior citizens, disabled bear brunt as national ID made mandatory for social security allowance

The beneficiaries remain anxious while officials expect even larger crowds in the coming weeks with Dashain approaching.

Seventy-four-year-old Tika Bahadur Rayamajhi leaned on his crutch as he waited outside the District Administration Office in Gulmi on Wednesday afternoon. A resident of ward 2 in Isma Rural Municipality, Rayamajhi struggles to walk, let alone ride or get off a vehicle without someone’s help. Yet here he was, standing in a long queue because the government has made the National identity card mandatory to access social security allowances.