Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
UPND President Hakainde Hichilema
The opposition UPND has welcomed pronouncements that the Marriage and Child Code bills are expected in Parliament shortly saying this will no doubt address the problem of early marriages.
UPND President Hakainde Hichilema says the nation has a shameful record on this front to date.
Mr. Hichilema says in fact Zambia has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world with 42% of women aged 20 to 24 married by the time they are 18.
He says this figure stands at closer to 60% in some areas, notably Eastern Province adding that it is clear the nation has to work out to deliver change.
Mr. Hichilema recalls that in 2015, 13, 000 girls below the age of 18 left schools early because of pregnancy or child marriage, and female literacy rates remain at around 12% lower than those for boys.
He states that these figures tell a sad story for the girls, one in which their struggle to reach their full potential is often doubly hard than that of their male counterparts.
The UPND Leader says the UPND is strongly committed to 50:50 opportunities in the work place and equal pay for equal work, but this will be a hard dream for them to realize as long as the road ahead for girls is more challenging than that for the boys.
He says it is for this reason he supports the pronouncement by government to come up with these bills.