UNICEF predicts Nigeria to have the highest number of child brides by 2050 By Neelu Agarwal United Nations Children’s Fund projected its findings in its latest reports on child marriage. And it has statistics indicating that Nigeria will have the highest number of child brides by 2050. Although Nigeria had witnessed a decline of one percent over adolescent marriages in the past 30 years or so but the constant rise in population will contribute to the alarming statistics, predicts UNICEF. The organization also fears that at the existing pace the total number of children getting married will get doubled by 2050! Child marriages have been a burning issue worldwide. Facts accord that there are 700 million women globally who had been married prior to their 18th birthday and most of them were wedded just as they turned 15. Adding to their plight, the report further states, “In Mauritiana and Nigeria, the grooms of such child brides have been 10 years (or more) older to them” Adding to the report, the UN’s agency of children has expressed significant concern that “by 2050, sub-Saharan Africa would be the sole contributor of the largest number of child brides to the world equation. These numbers will dominate in the next 36 years adding to the worldwide share of children being married underage”. “Quite opposite to global trends, some of the nations have been able to steady their statistics regarding child marriage. In Burkina Faso, the occurrence of child marriages has been found static at around 50 % for the past three decades”. Gender bias has been implied as the root cause of the problem. In Niger for example, when compared, if 77% of the women were pushed into ‘marital bliss’, the number of boys being married amounted to a meagre 5%. This trend however is widespread and holds true to even those countries that do not have an existing child-marriage issue. The report reflects that the marriage of children before they are of marriageable age is a result of gender discrimination that has been plaguing the world and the role of social norms in this dogma is the culprit. “Boys are also married as children, but girls are disproportionately affected”, the report insists. Nigerian Canadian News
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 13:32:08 +0000