68 million child marriages averted
What Could Go Right? is a free weekly newsletter from?The Progress Network?written by our executive director,?Emma Varvaloucas. In addition to this newsletter, which collects substantive progress news from around the world, The Progress Network is also home to the anti-apocalypse conversational podcast also called?What Could Go Right?.
68 million child marriages averted
“Child marriage in decline—but?will take 300 years to eliminate.” “Child marriage rate?falling too slowly.” Headlines about the recently released United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)?report on child marriage?borderlined on the dour.
There is plenty to be dour about. In the future, it’s likely sub-Saharan Africa will have more child brides as populations there increase without strong economic development. It’s forecasted that the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted progress on reducing child marriage rates, although data is not yet available. Progress has stagnated in some regions. And the “too slowly” comment is in regard to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted in 2015. Ending child marriage by 2030—an ambitious goal—was one of them, and it’s highly unlikely to be met.?
The basic finding of the report, though, is positive. Child marriage is on the decline, particularly in South Asia, where almost half of child brides live. Globally, an estimated 68 million child marriages were averted in the past?25 years.
In the last decade, the likelihood of a girl from South Asia marrying in childhood has dropped from 46 to 26 percent. Of the area’s countries, Sri Lanka and Bhutan have the same child marriage rates of 25 years ago. But Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have all registered substantial declines, and Maldives is close to eliminating child marriage entirely. Maldives didn’t start from an already low rate, either. Twenty-five years ago, the prevalence rate of child marriage there was over 50 percent. Now it’s two percent.
If we’re talking sheer numbers, though, the leader of the group is India. Because of its huge population, India alone accounts for one-third of the world’s child brides, says the report. Prevalence rates there have dropped as well, from 74 percent?in 1970 to 23 percent in 2020.
This is why trends like the ones I?mentioned last week, that India is?urbanizing?and?becoming richer, are so exciting. These trends have many ripple effects—child brides in India (and other countries) are more likely to live in poor households, have less education, and reside in rural areas. Around the world, where there has been economic development, poverty reduction, and access to employment and education, so too have there been fewer girls getting married. Indeed, as the report shows, in some places child marriage rates have?increased?recently among the poorest. A bit simplistically: it is good on multiple levels when people have more money.
As always, a lot remains to be done. There are challenges ahead, and in many ways it makes sense to keep emphasizing those in the media coverage, as many outlets have. The organizations that help make all this progress need funding, after all!?
But they—and we—might need a little cheerleading, too. While writing this I was reminded of a conversation I had with an acquaintance who works on UNICEF child poverty campaigns. She was stunned when I told her that?poverty globally is on the decline, and asked me to send her some data. She told me it would be really helpful to know that what she does actually makes a difference. So this summary is offered in that spirit.
Quick hits
To bolster the point our collaboration with Warp News on the?sixth mass extinction made: humans care?a lot?about saving animals. So much so that we’re trying to?save koalas from chlamydia.?
Chimpanzees talk to each other, kinda. Specifically,?about snakes.
The case for climate optimism. And, with Americans' trust in media and the government near record lows, what can be done to repair some of the faith that has been lost? Writer Katherine Brodsky?has some ideas.
Below in the links section, swimming in the Seine, brain surgery in a fetus, Frankfurt to Dubai in under two hours, and more.
—Emma Varvaloucas
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