Groups Call for U.S. to Fight Harder
Against Child Marriages
READ MORE: http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/08/groups-call-for-u-s-to-fight-harder-against-child-marriages/
Child brides in rural Senegal at work. Marriage before the
age of 18 is a generally common practice in Senegal.
WASHINGTON, Aug 1 2013 (IPS) - Advocacy groups are urging for
partnerships between governmental organisations and private sector businesses to
better prevent child marriage and combat the economic, development and health
problems it causes.
A
recently released report by Rachel Vogelstein, a fellow at the Women and Foreign
Policy Program at the non-partisan think tank Council on Foreign Relations,
highlights strategic and moral reasons for U.S. involvement in the
issue.
“Child marriages are a form of gender-based violence,” said
Vogelstein at a discussion on her study on Wednesday. “It curtails education for
young girls, which in turn stifles their economic
progress.”
According to the United Nations, in 2011 almost 70 million women—or
one in three women between the ages of 20 and 24—had been married under the age
of 18. In South Asia, 46 percent of women aged 20 to 24 were married before 18
and 18 percent were married by age 15. India accounts for 40 percent of all
child marriages worldwide.
“This
is often just seen as the norm in many countries. That’s just how life has
been,” Lakshmi Sundaram, global coordinator of a London-based advocacy group,
Girls Not Brides, told IPS.
READ MORE: http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/08/groups-call-for-u-s-to-fight-harder-against-child-marriages/
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