Child marriage ‘worryingly high’ around world

Figures released by Unicef revealed that 11 per cent of women are married before they are 15 and more than one in three – 34 per cent – are wed before they reach 18. The charity has warned that the early marriages jeopardise girls’ rights to health, education and protection.

More than a third of girls in 
Niger are married before they reach 15 and in Bangladesh, Chad and the Central African Republic almost three in 10 girls have been married before they turn 15. Unicef’s latest State of the World’s Children report stresses the importance of data collection to help identify the world’s most disadvantaged children.

The report also highlights three-quarters of girls and women aged 15 to 49 in Burkina Faso have undergone female genital mutilation, but only nine per cent favour continuation of the practice. The figures also show the “unimaginable” level of violence that children around the world are facing, a spokeswoman said.

Almost four in five children across the globe – 79 per cent – experience “violent discipline” either through psychological aggression or physical violence while they are at home or in school, the report states.

The report highlights the importance of data in bettering the lives of children across the world. It says that better data can expose unequal access to services and protections for youngsters.

“Being counted makes children visible, and this act of recognition makes it possible to address their needs and advance their rights,” the report states.

Tessa Wardlaw, chief of Unicef’s data and analytics section, said: “Data have made it possible to save and improve the lives of millions of children, especially the most deprived. Further progress can only be made if we know which children are the most neglected, where girls and boys are out of school, where disease is rampant or where basic sanitation is lacking.”