Despite gains in education, world is still a violent, highly discriminatory place for girls: UNICEF

DHAKA/NEW YORK, 4 March 2020 – More girls are going to school and staying in school than ever before, but remarkable gains in education have made little headway in helping shape a more equal, less violent environment for girls, UNICEF, Plan International and UN Women warned today in a new report.

The report – A New Era for Girls: Taking stock on 25 years of progress – released ahead of the 64^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, notes that the number of out-of-school girls globally has dropped by 79 million in the last two decades. In fact, girls became more likely to be in secondary school than boys in just the last decade.

Yet, violence against women and girls is still common. In 2016, for example, women and girls accounted for 70 per cent of detected trafficking victims globally, most for sexual exploitation. Globally an astonishing one in every 20 girls aged 15-19 – around 13 million – has experienced rape in their lifetimes, one of the most violent forms of sexual abuse women and girls can suffer.

Bangladesh, like the rest of the world, has also witnessed this negative trend despite positive leaps in education, nutrition, child and maternal mortality. As for education, around 88.7 per cent women aged 15-24 years are now literate. However, percentage of children aged 1-14 years who experienced  any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past one month was 88.8 per cent, according to Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2019. 

MICS 2019 also found that 37 per cent of adolescent girls from the age group of 15-19 years do not feel safe while commuting alone after dark. Over half of all the marriages take place before 18 years of age of women who are of 20-24. Around 24 per cent women are subjected to early childbearing. 

Meanwhile, every one in four women (25.4 per cent) in Bangladesh aged 15-49 years who believe a husband is justified in beating his wife in at least one of the following circumstances: (1) she goes out without telling him, (2) she neglects the children, (3) she argues with him, (4) she refuses sex with him, and (5) she burns the food. 

Despite these new findings, UNICEF is grateful to the Government of Bangladesh for their high commitment to end violence. The Child Helpline 1098, where children can directly report abuse and seek protection, is a testament to the good collaboration. 

“Twenty-five years ago, the world’s governments made a commitment to women and girls, but they have only made partial good on that promise. While the world has mustered the political will to send many girls to school, it has come up embarrassingly short on equipping them with the skills and support they need not only to shape their own destinies but to live in safety and dignity,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.

The global report is issued in the context of the Generation Equality campaign and to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – the historic blueprint for advancing women’s and girls’ rights.

“It is vital that we hold governments to account on their commitment to the historic Beijing Declaration, and this report offers a holistic picture of what the world looks like for girls 25 years on,” said Plan International Chief Executive Officer Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen.

“Since 1995 in Beijing, when a specific focus on ‘girl-child’ issues first emerged, we have increasingly heard girls assert their rights and call us to account. But the world has not kept up with their expectations of responsible stewardship of the planet, a life without violence, and their hopes for economic independence,” said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Girls today are at a startling risk of violence in every space – both online and in the classroom, home and community – leading to physical, psychological and social consequences. The report notes that harmful practices such as child marriage continue to damage the lives and potentials of millions of girls globally. Each year, 12 million girls are married in childhood. Globally, girls aged 15-19 are as likely to justify wife-beating as boys of the same age.

The report also points to concerning negative trends for girls in nutrition and health, many of which were unimaginable 25 years ago. A shift from traditional diets to processed, unhealthy foods have resulted in increased consumption of unhealthy food and sugar-sweetened beverages triggering obesity. Today, there are twice as many overweight girls 155 million than in 1995 (75 million).

The last 25 years have seen growing concerns about poor mental health fuelled in part by excessive use of digital technologies. The report notes that suicide is currently the second leading cause of death among adolescent girls aged 15-19, surpassed only by maternal conditions.

The report calls for action in the following areas:

• Celebrating and expanding opportunities for girls of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and income and social status levels to be bold and ambitious changemakers and solution designers – actively engaging their voices, opinions and ideas in dialogues, platforms and processes that relate to their bodies, communities, education and futures.
• Increasing policy and programme investments to scale up promising models that accelerate progress for and with adolescent girls aligned to today's world reality, including their skills development for the fourth industrial revolution and a generational movement to end gender-based violence, child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation.
• Increasing investments in the production, analysis and use of high-quality age- and sex-disaggregated data and research in areas where knowledge is limited – such as gender-based violence, 21st century skills acquisition, adolescent nutrition and mental health.

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Notes to Editors:

For more information, please contact:
Helen Wylie, UNICEF New York, Tel: +1 917 244 2215, [email protected]

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