UNFPA suggests Bangladesh to take 10 actions for 10-year-old girls

What the world will be like in 15 years will depend on whether everything is done to ignite the potential of a 10-year-old girl today, the UNPFA says as it has released the State of World Population 2016 focusing on those girls.

Nurul Islam Hasibbdnews24.com
Published : 20 Oct 2016, 05:15 PM
Updated : 20 Oct 2016, 06:18 PM

The annual flagship report globally released on Thursday showed that the welfare of these girls will have a real impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were unanimously adopted at the United Nations last year.

Like previous years, the report also featured a Bangladeshi 10-year-old girl among the 10 girls from as many countries.

“We would like to suggest the government to take 10 essential actions for the today’s 10-year-old girls,” UNFPA Bangladesh Representative Argentina Matavel Piccin told bdnews24.com on Thursday.

She said those actions are related to laws, service, policy reforms, investments, data usage and norms as age 10 is the beginning of adolescence and a girl starts to see life's possibilities expanding – or contracting.

In 15 years, the lifespan of the 2030 agenda, the 10-year-old girl will be 25.

The 10 actions:

1.  Stipulate legal equality for girls, backed by consistent legal practice.

2.  Ban all harmful practices against girls, and make 18 the minimum marriage age.

3.  Provide safe, high-quality education that fully upholds gender equality in curricula, teaching standards and extracurricular activities.

4.  In working towards universal health care, institute a 10-year-old mental and physical check-up for all girls.

5.  Provide age-specific comprehensive sexuality education when puberty begins.

6.  Institute a rigorous and systematic focus on inclusion, acting on all factors rendering girls vulnerable to being left behind.

7.  Track and close investment gaps in young adolescent girls.

8.  Mobilise new funds for mental health, protection and reducing unpaid work that constrains options for girls.

9.  Use the 2030 agenda data revolution to better track progress for girls, including on sexual and reproductive health.

10. Engage girls, boys and all the people around them in challenging and changing gender discriminatory norms.

The 17 goals of the SDGs call for poverty eradication, gender equality, universal access to health care and other essential steps to promote development.

“None of them can be achieved without realizing the rights and potential of the world's girls,” the UNFPA said in its report.

It said when girls are empowered they contribute enormously to the global economy, to the health and well-being of their families, and to their communities and countries.

“Both boys and girls in this age need attention. But we are focusing on girls in this report as they are lagging behind than boys, and they are neglected,” the UNFPA Bangladesh chief said.

According to the report, most of the 10-year-olds live in countries where poverty remains common. These children often face daunting challenges to growing up healthy, educated and able to meet their full potential.

As these girls look to the future, they are more likely to encounter barriers to secondary education, reproductive health care, decent employment and decision making.

Ten-year-old girls do more household labour, and more unpaid labour, than boys.

Bangladesh girl, Aditi, of a southern Noyakata village, who was featured in the report, says each morning before going to school in her village, she does her homework.

After school, she takes care of her younger sister while her mother works. She hopes to go to college one day and to become a teacher.

Bangladesh is criticised for the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world with the latest Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) found the rate of under-18 girls’ marriage 59 percent.