UNESCO's new report on child marriages shows signs of progress. Yet each year, 12 million girls marry before they turn 18. And the pandemic, climate change and conflict has only made things worse.
The United Nations established the Day of the Girl a decade ago to address issues that affect girls' rights: education, teen pregnancy, child marriage. Steady progress has been made. Then came COVID.
That's the title of a newly released report from Amnesty International, covering a range of issues affecting girls and women under Taliban rule. Foremost among them are child and forced marriage.
The U.N. issued its first report on the plight of child grooms. And the pandemic has only made things worse. Here's a report from Nepal, where 1 in 10 boys marry young.
She's one of 110 girls in a boarding program run by the Veerni Institute in India. When lockdowns hit, they were sent home to their villages, where child marriage is rampant.
Kenya's president pledged to stamp out the practice by 2022. But since the pandemic began, activists say more girls are being cut — and married off afterward.
Local sources say there's been a spike in child marriage during the pandemic. A key reason: By marrying off girls early, poor families have one less mouth to feed in desperate times.
