In accordance with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report titled “A New Era for Girls: Taking stock on 25 years of progress” in collaboration with UN Women and Plan International, girls still face violence and discrimination even after 25 years of Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The Beijing Declaration was aimed at advancing women’s and girls’ rights in the country.
- The report has been launched in line with the Generation Equality campaign, and to mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
Highlights from the report:
-In 2016, women and girls accounted for 70% of detected trafficking victims globally, mostly involving sexual exploitation
-One in 20 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 reported being raped in her lifetime.
-Each year 12 million girls are married off in childhood, and four million risks FGM (Female genital mutilation).
–Suicide is currently the second leading cause of death among adolescent girls.
-Around 970,000 adolescent girls between the ages of 10 and 19 are today living with HIV (human immunodeficiency viruses), accounting for around three-in-four new infections among adolescents worldwide as compared to 740,000 girls in 1995.
-The number of girls out of school worldwide dropped by 79 million between 1998 and 2018.
-The number of female youth aged 15–24 years who are illiterate declined from 100 million to 56 million between 1995 and 2018, but 1 in 10 female youth remain illiterate.
-Nearly one in four adolescent girls aged 15–19 years globally are neither in education, employment nor training compared to 1 in 10 boys of the same age.
-Over the past 20 years, progress to reduce anaemia among adolescent girls has been slow. In South Asia one in five girls are moderately or severely underweight.
-Globally, the proportion of girls aged 5–19 years who are overweight has nearly doubled since 1995.
Female youth Labour Force participation declined to 33% in 2020
The global participation of female youth aged 15–24 years in the labour force has declined from 47% in 1995 to 33% in 2020 owing to improved Educational opportunities but still work towards girl’s safety and gender equality is required.
About UNICEF:
Headquarters- New York, United States (US)
Executive Director– Henrietta Holsman Fore
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