Child marriages in Afghanistan down by 10 percent : UNICEF
Kabul, July 29 : The rate of child marriages in Afghanistan has declined by 10 percent in the last decade but continues to be a challenge which needs multilateral policy intervention, according to a report published by UNICEF on Sunday.
According to the joint study by UNICEF and the Afghan Labour Ministry in both urban and rural areas of five of the 34 Afghan provinces, 42 percent families have at least one member who was married before the age of 18, although the figure varies widely from region to region, reports Efe news.
"Child marriage is slightly declining in Afghanistan, and we commend the relentless efforts of the government to reduce this practice and their strong commitment to child rights," Adele Khodr, UNICEF representative in Afghanistan, said in a statement.
"Yet, further consolidated action is needed by the different actors in society to put an end to this practice and reach the goal of ending child marriage by 2030," Khodr added.
In 78 percent of cases, the father makes the decisions regarding marriage, while 56 percent of respondents agreed that the bride and groom should be consulted about the marriage.
There remains a lack of understanding about the negative impacts of child marriage on girls, particularly in areas such as education, nutrition and economic development.
Khodr said that convincing parents to send their daughters to school was key in reducing child marriage.
"Ending child marriage will break the inter-generational cycle of poverty and will give girls and women opportunities to engage and participate fully in their society," the UNICEF representative said.
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Congress names candidates for 8 Haryana LS seats, fields Kumari Selja, Deepender Hooda
Chandigarh (PTI): The Congress on Thursday announced candidates for eight of the nine Lok Sabha seats it is contesting in Haryana, fielding former Union minister Kumari Selja, Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda and youth leader Divyanshu Budhiraja, besides two sitting MLAs.
The party has also fielded former MP Jai Prakash and leaders Satpal Brahmachari and Mahendra Pratap, according to the list released late Thursday evening.
The Congress is contesting nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. It has not yet announced its candidate for the Gurugram constituency.
The Aam Aadmi Party, a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, will contest the Kurukshetra seat.
Congress general secretary and former Union minister Selja will contest from the Sirsa (reserved) seat and sitting MLAs Varun Choudhary and Rao Dan Singh from the Ambala (reserved) and the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seats, respectively.
Deepender Hooda, son of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, will enter the fray from Rohtak. He has represented the Rohtak parliamentary constituency three times in the past.
Jai Prakash has been fielded from Hisar, the Congress' Haryana youth wing president Divanshu Budhiraja from Karnal, Satpal Brahmachari from Sonipat and Mahendra Pratap from Faridabad.
