PRESIDENT RECEIVES INVITATION TO RECEIVE DOCORATE DEGREE FROM BHU Kathmandu, 2 Dec.: President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav Saturday received an official invitation from visiting Indian leader Dr..Karan Singh to receive an honourary doctorate degree from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) 25 December 25. The president will be visiting India for the third time to receive the degree and visit other parts of India during a week-long tour. Dr. Singh is senior functionary of ruling Congress Party, a troubleshooter for the Indian government and chancellor of BHU.. The president hosted a dinner for the visiting Indian leader who returns Sunday after holding extensive talks with leaders during an extended crisis. Nnnn 50 % FLOUTED LAW TO GET MARRIED Kathmandu, 2 Dec : Despite sustained campaigns by government and non-government agencies to curb child marriage in the country, the latest National Census has revealed that a significant number of people were married before they reached a marriageable age, Nirjana Sharma writes in Republica.. As per the law amended in 2008, an individual is eligible to get marriage if he/she is 20 years old or above. Before that, the law described the right age to get married for male as 24 and female 18. The census revealed that 60 percent of those surveyed said that they were married between 10 to 19 years of age. Among them, 70 percent females said they were married before they turned 20. Of the total 13.8 million married population, more than 8 million said they were married when they were below 20, the prescribed age for marriage. Around 2.4 million males got married early, the instances of early marriage for female population is almost double that figure. More than 5.5 million female were married off at an early age. Experts say that the scenario has not only revealed the existing gender bias but also the fact that men prefer younger women. “Most men choose younger women as they want wives to look young and beautiful no matter how old they themselves are,” said Advocate Mira Dhungana, adding, “Also, in such marriages males have the upper hand in all decision making and easily dominate their spouses.” The early marriage rate is high in rural areas at 86.6 percent. In rural areas, 97,694 girls were married when they were of below 10 years age, whereas the figure for males in the same age category stands at 19,531. More than 3.7 million females and 1.9 million males said they were married between 15-19 years. Similarly, 0.9 million rural females were married between 10-14 years age, while the corresponding figure for males is 232,597. The early marriage has been held responsible for Nepal´s mortality rate of 170 per 100,000 live births and family breakdowns. According to demographers, early and unmatched marriages would lead to social problems like separation and divorce. “It would be better to upgrade marriageable age for both male and female to 24 to reduce the age gap,” said demographer Padma Prasad Khatiwada. He added that increasing a girl´s legal age for marriage would ultimately protect them from exploitation. Nnnn ________________________________________ MPST SECTIONS OF CAPITAL ROADS TO E COMPLETED BY JANUARY Kathmandu, 2 Dec.: : Government officials said work on most of the sections in the road expansion drive in Kathmandu will be completed in January, Republica reports. A team of senior government officials led by Krishnahari Baskota, secretary at the office of the prime minister, found the work progress in Kathmandu satisfactory after a field inspection at various places around the capital city on Saturday. "During our field visits, we found that road section stretching from Kamalpokhari to Maitidevi, Maitidevi to Dhovikhola Bridge and Maharajgunj to Baluwatar has been blacktopped," said Baskota, who heads the high-level monitoring committee. At present, work is underway at 109 road sections in Kathmandu district, 11 road sections in Lalitpur and two sections in Bhaktapur. "Of them, roads at most of the sections in Kathmandu has been blacktopped while some other sections have been graveled," he said. The team also found that 70 percent of the total work have been completed in some parts while some other sections have been left behind. During the inspection, Baskota instructed concerned officials to recommend rewarding those engineers who complete their work prior to the given timeframe so as to encourage other engineers to speed up their works. He at the same time he also threatened to terminate contracts of contractors who fail to complete the work within the given timeline. The inspection team also found some irregularities at different sites. In some places sidewalks were not built, electricity poles and debris from the demolition of buildings had not been removed. The team also instructed the contractors to work as per the plan of maintaining green city and to create roads friendly for physically-challenged people. Secretaries from various concerned ministries such as the ministry for physical planning and works, the ministry of forest and soil conservation, ministry of local development, finance ministry, senior police officials and officials from various concerned offices including the Kathmandu metropolitan office, department of roads and Nepal Electricity Authority, among others, were part of the inspection team. As the team briefed Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai about the findings of the field inspection later on Saturday, the prime minister instructed the team to strictly continue the inspection in the days to come as well. Nnnn 4-PARTY DEAL UNACCEPTABLE SAYS NEFIN Kathmandu, 2 Dec.: The umbrella organisation of indigenous nationalities of the country — Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) said today that the indigenous nationalities would not accept any decision of the four largest parties, The Himalayan Times reports.. “A way-out of the deadlock is not possible only through the decision of the four parties. That is regressive thinking. So we won’t accept any such decision,” said Raj Kumar Lekhi, NEFIN chairman at a press conference organised by Association of Nepalese Indigenous Nationalities Journalists (ANIJ). Lekhi said NEFIN was forced to make public its memorandum meant for the President through a press conference because the President had refused to meet them since the last one week. Lekhi said the President should work on an agreement acceptable to all parties, most importantly the indigenous nationalities who had reached agreements with previous governments. He added any agreement must be based on agreements reached with indigenous nationalities. He said it was unfortunate to hear statements against federalism from the head of state. Former NEFIN chairman Pasang Sherpa said the President should be sensitive towards the spirit of the movements of indigenous nationalities and issues such as federalism, identity and right to self-determination. Census 2012 agitation target Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) on Saturday announced a month-long protest campaign from Sunday. Organising a press conference, NEFIN Chairman Raj Kumar Lekhi said sit-in protest and other programmes would be held at 71 district administration offices for one month after handing over memorandum to them. Lekhi said they were forced to protest because the 2011 census has not only reduced the number of indigenous nationalities compared to the 2001 census, but also eliminated the existence of 10 indigenous nationalities from the 59 enlisted in the government’s official record. He also accused the government of ignoring NEFIN’s suggestions regarding the census. Lekhi said NEFIN would not accept any plan and programme formulated as per this ‘unscientific’ census. nnnn MORE MIGRANT WORKERS LEAVE Kathmandu, 2 Dec.: More workers joined foreign jobs in the first four months of the current fiscal year as compared to same period in last fiscal, The Himalayan Times reports.. Data from the Department of Foreign Employment revealed that about 165,681 workers joined foreign jobs in the first four months, which is 5.40 per cent more than the 156,730 who migrated for jobs in the corresponding period of last fiscal year. According to the department, about 124,394 Nepali workers joined foreign jobs for the first time, while 41,377 reentered foreign destinations. Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates hired about 90 per cent of Nepali foreign job aspirants. Malaysia was the top hiring destination with 51,425 jobs, followed by Saudi Arabia (38,484), Qatar (35,650) and UAE (24,137). Other destinations including Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and South Korea hired 15,985 Nepali workers in the first quadrimester. The third month of the current fiscal year witnessed a sharp rise in migration with 47,067 workers joining foreign jobs. Worker migration dropped to 34,990 in the fourth month due to Dashain and Tihar. Migration will likely rise in the coming months as the department has given prior approval for 207,606 jobs. The highest number of 66,985 prior job approvals were issued in Asoj (mid-September to mid-October). Concerns about safety The safety of domestic workers at the workplace was the main debate at 5th World Social Forum on Migration being held in Manila, Philippines, on November 26-30. Migrant rights advocates, criticised sending countries, saying they could not streamline migration of domestic workers. Worker exporting countries have earned millions of dollars in remittance but they are not serious about the safety of their citizens at the workplace. “Governments have not substantially addressed the core reasons for worker exodus to seek a livelihood in a foreign land, notwithstanding the social consequences they have to face, including conflicts, disasters, and violence,” said executive director of Center for Migrant Advocacy Ellene Sana at the forum on Tuesday. nnnn