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International Girl Child Day is being observed today which aims to focus on the importance of girls’ education, their rights, and promoting gender equality.
The theme of International Day of the Girl 2023 is “Invest in Girls’ Rights: Our Leadership, Our Well-being,” according to the official website of the United Nations. Did you know there are several girls at extreme risk of facing the devastating impact of both climate crisis and child marriage which will increase to nearly 40 million by 2050?
A new report has warned that while an estimated 29.9 million adolescent girls reside in countries where the risks of both early marriage and life-changing climate disasters are highest, this number is expected to increase by about 33 percent.
Shruti Agarwal, a senior adviser at Save the Children said, “The risks to girls are real. It’s the risk of sexual harassment and abuse girls face in the chaotic aftermath of a disaster, where overcrowding and lack of safe services leave them exposed.”
The report titled ‘Girls at the centre of the storm: Her planet, her future, her solutions’ was published on the eve of the International Day of the Girl Child.
The research highlights the connection between increasing climate-related disasters and how it is creating emergency hotspots for girls’ rights, exacerbating the challenges faced by girls in these regions.
Poverty, gender inequality, conflict, and hunger further compound the issue, making girls more vulnerable to both child marriage and the impacts of the climate crisis.
Girls married at a young are far less likely to stay in school, with lifelong economic impacts. They are often isolated, and they are at higher risk of physical and sexual violence. Child brides are also at greater risk of experiencing dangerous complications in pregnancy and childbirth, the NGO said.
Nations in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, particularly Bangladesh, Chad, and Guinea, which are highly vulnerable to climate crisis and already reeling under mounting impacts, are going to be most severely impacted, the report released by global NGO Save the Children warned.
