The report titled "For every child a fair chance: The promise of equity," states that the children from the poorest households are nearly twice as likely as those from the richest households to die before age five, and five times more likely to be out of school.
Girls from the poorest families are four times more likely as those from the richest families to be married before 18.
Likewise, more than 2.4 billion people still do not have adequate toilets--40 per cent of them in South Asia; and more than 660 million still lack access to safe drinking water--nearly half of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly half of the 159 million children suffering from stunting live in South Asia and one third in Africa, states the latest report.
“In just over a generation, the world has cut child death rates by half, put over 90 per cent of children in primary school, and increased by 2.6 billion the number of people with access to safe water,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake in the statement released by the UNICEF Nepal.
“Yet children make up almost half of the worlds poor, nearly 250 million children live in conflict-torn countries, and over 200,000 have risked their lives this year seeking refuge in Europe,” the statement read.
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