THE United Nations on Friday said that by 2020, more than 140 million girls would have become child brides globally if the current marriage rates continue.
It warned that little progress has been made towards ending the harmful practice.
According to the Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, of the 140 million girls, 50 million will be under the age of 15.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) disclosed that Osotimehin spoke at a special session on child marriage at the ongoing UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York, United States of America.
Some of the issues focused on during the session included supporting and enforcing legislation to increase the minimum age of marriage for girls to 18 years.
Others are providing equal access to quality primary and secondary education for girls and boys; mobilising girls, boys, parents and leaders to change practises that discriminate against girls, among others.
He said that while 158 countries had set the legal age for marriage at 18 years, laws are rarely enforced since the practise of marrying young children was upheld by tradition and social norms.
He stated that the practice was most common in rural sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The UNFPA Executive Director said that currently, 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage are Niger, Chad, the Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Guinea, Mozambique, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Malawi.
According to him, in terms of absolute numbers and because of the size of its population, India had the highest number of child marriages in 47 per cent of all marriages, stressing that the bride was a child.
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