16. December 2006
Situation of the World´s Children 2007
The achievement of the Millennium Development Goal number 3 “equal rights for men and women” would improve life quality, survival and development of children enormously.
UNICEF based its report on the situation of children worldwide on this assumption.
Strong women – strong children is the motto. Abortion of female babies, female genital mutilation, rapes, malnutrition, no access to education, trafficking or child marriage and teenager pregnancies - factors which prevent an equal development.
Facts:
- Every minute a woman dies of complications during her pregnancy or while giving birth to her child. This is more than half a million women per year.
- Every year about 147 million teenagers between 15 and 19 years deliver a baby.
- Despite intensive promotion of girls there are still 115 girls on 100 boys who do not attend school. Nearly two thirds of all illiterate persons are women.
- Every year about 3 million girls get circumcised, this means 8.000 per day. About 130 million women worldwide are circumcised.
- According to UNICEF´s about one million minors – most of them girls – are forced to prostitution
- Estimated 150 million girls under the age of 18 were forced to sex in 2002. Every third women suffers domestic violence at least once in her life
Discrimination of women and girls already starts before they are born. In China or India for example female foetus are aborted systematically.
Between 40 and 60 percent of the women in south Asia are underweight, these countries also show the highest rate of children born underweight.
If women had the chance to be included in decisions in their family life and households on an equal basis, the number of malnourished women and children would decline enormously.
Even medical treatment of women and girls could be secured if the right to say a matter and gender equality is guarantied. Very often the husband or father or the mother in law decides on the medical treatment of a woman or the daughters or women are not allowed to leave their homes on their own.
Numerous studies show – education is the best investment. Educated women die less often during their pregnancy or while giving birth and their babies have better life expectations; they know more about their bodies and their health. Women who went to school do everything to send their own children to school too. The better the education level is, the more influence women have on their own life; educated women marry later, get less children and don´t run the risk to suffer from repression and exploitation trough their families and/or employer.
Please click www.unicef.org to get more information about the current publication.
Sources: UNICEF, Worldbank