Rising Child Marriages During The Pandemic

Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, 100 million girls were at risk of child marriage. In the last ten years, the proportion of young women globally who were married as children had decreased by 15 per cent, from nearly 1 in 4 to 1 in 5, the equivalent of some 25 million marriages averted, a gain that is now under threat.

• Estimates by United Nations Children’s Fund projected that an additional 10 million girls globally will be at risk of child marriages over the next decade due to COVID-19.
• India is home to the largest number of child brides in the world, accounting ....