Marriages of children on the decline

CHILD marriages still remain high in Bangladesh, although the rate is globally declining, with the largest drop in South Asia, according to Unicef.

The rate of child marriage in Bangladesh is 59 percent, the fourth highest in the world, reports CNN.

Niger has the highest child marriage rate (76 percent), followed by Central African Republic and Chad.

In 2011, Bangladesh had a child marriage rate of 52 percent, Bangla daily reported citing government statistics.

Ten years ago, a South Asian girl’s risk of getting married as a child was about 50 percent, but now that has fallen to about 30 percent, Unicef said in a release yesterday.

Unicef attributed the progress in India to increasing rates of girls’ education, government investments and public messaging.

“Any reduction is welcome news, but we’ve got a long way to go,” said Anju Malhotra, Unicef’s principal gender adviser.

Even with the declines, 12 million girls are married in childhood every year, according to Unicef. Globally, one in five women are married before they turn 18. A decade ago, the rate had been one in four, it said.

“While South Asia has led the way on reducing child marriage over the last decade, the global burden of child marriage is shifting to sub-Saharan Africa,” it added.

One in three recently married child brides are now in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to one in five a decade ago.