Four million girls are at risk of child marriage in the next two years because of the new coronavirus pandemic, a global charity said on Friday, as campaigners warned that the crisis could undo decades of work to end the practice. Deepening poverty caused by the loss of livelihoods is likely to drive many families to marry off their daughters early, World Vision said.
Campaigners said the risks were exacerbated by the fact that schools were closed and organisations working to combat child marriage were finding it harder to operate during lockdowns. The pandemic is also making it more difficult for girls to access reproductive health services which could lead to a rise in teenage pregnancies and increased pressure to marry. Worldwide, an estimated 12 million girls are married every year before the age of 18 – nearly one girl every three seconds.
A U.N. report last month predicted the pandemic could lead to an extra 13 million child marriages over the next decade. Girls Not Brides, a global partnership of 1,400 organisations working to end child marriage, said members were extremely worried. World Vision’s Hall said there was already anecdotal evidence of a rise in child marriages in South Sudan, Afghanistan and India, where the charity recently worked with police to stop seven marriage after calls to helplines.
Hall said there were fears some people would use lockdowns to conceal child marriages, but she expected the spike would come later as families struggle with the economic fallout. Parents may marry off girls as a way to reduce the number of children they have to support or to access dowries.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
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