20 crore girls in India get married in childhood, this UN report makes a shocking claim

New Delhi: A recent UN report revealed that more than 200 million women in India were married as children. Globally, an estimated 640 million girls and women were married before the age of 18, with one-third of these cases occurring in India alone. According to the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024, one in five girls is married before the age of 18, compared to one in four 25 years ago. This improvement has prevented nearly 68 million child marriages in the last quarter century. Despite these advances, the UN warns that the world has lagged behind in terms of gender equality. Issues such as violence against women and the lack of autonomy for many women in terms of their sexual and reproductive health still persist. At the current pace, it will take 176 years to achieve parity in management positions between men and women.

‘Our failure is undermining development’
The report also highlights that only 17% of the 169 goals set by the UN to improve global living conditions are on track to be met by the 2030 deadline. Adopted by world leaders in 2015, these goals aim to address a wide range of issues, from ending poverty to achieving gender equality. However, nearly half of these goals show minimal or moderate progress, and more than a third are stalling or regressing. Guterres said its conclusion is simple. Our failure to ensure peace, tackle climate change and boost international finance is undermining development.

‘The world is getting the status of failure’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saw some rays of hope in the report but stressed the need for urgent and accelerated efforts to fulfil the 2030 Agenda. The assessment shows that only 17% of the targets show substantial progress, while 48% display moderate to serious deviations. Releasing the annual report, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “This shows that the world is heading towards a failure.”