The first actress to scale Mt. Everest, Nisha Adhikari, can also be considered the pioneer in birth tourism. She went to the USA after before she announced her pregnancy on the New Year of 2018, January 1. After that, she has been living with her brother. Last month, her husband, cricketer Sharad Bheswakar joined Nisha to be by her side when she deliver the baby.
Video report:
Nisha says:
What is birth tourism?
The term “Birth Tourism” is defined as a trend of people travelling to another country for the purpose of giving birth in that country. The main reason for birth tourism is to obtain the citizenship for the child in a country with birthright citizenship (jus soli). Other reasons may include access to a better healthcare, better public schooling, sponsorship for the parents in the future and so on.
The baby born as a result of birth tourism is also called “Anchor baby” used often in negative connotations.
Birth tourism is popular in countries like USA and Canada. All the children born in these countries are automatically the citizens irrespective of the status of their parents.
Birth tourism from Nepal
Although Nisha Adhikari is clearly the first Nepali celebrity who had openly told that she has gone to the USA to give birth to her unborn child, other celebrities had done so unannounced. So, I consider Nisha the first Nepali celebrity who could afford to go to the USA for childbirth and announce it publicly. Last year, Nisha had produced a film titled ‘Jhyanakuti’ and she is planning to screen the film in the USA. Nisha’s brother lives in the USA and she had previously lived there for an extensive period.
Before Nisha, another Nisha – Nisha Sunar had gone to the USA to give birth to her daughter. A divorcee, Nisha had secretly married an already married choreographer, Shankar BC, and got pregnant. She took her 3-months pregnancy to the USA and announced her secret marriage from the USA. I wrote about Nisha’s marriage announcement in 2014 (read the Nisha Sunar marriage report).
Read about birth of Nisha’s daughter and
Nisha started singing in restaurant in the USA to support herself and her daughter, right after giving birth to the child.
Before Nisha Sunar, another Nepali actress went to the USA and got pregnant – twice. Actress Richa Ghimire and her director husband Shankar Ghimire had gone to Canada to screen their film ‘Tulasi’. After Canada they went to the USA and settled there. The parents of a son, Nisha and Shankar gave birth to a son in 2014 and a daughter in 2016. (Richa Ghimire’s son’s birth report and about the birth of the daughter.)
In the case of Nisha Sunar and Richa Ghimire, it was more of relocation than tourism. So far, Nisha Adhikari’s travel to the USA sounds more ‘touristic’.
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