KATHMANDU, March 18: Child marriage spiked in humanitarian crises triggered by the COVID-19 in a number of South Asian countries, mainly in Nepal and Bangladesh, says a report of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP).

The UNESCAP has unveiled the fact in its Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2021. According to the report, lockdowns, school closures and economic downturns linked to COVID-19 had a significant impact on girls. “The pandemic has reduced their access to sexual and reproductive health services and disrupted interventions to reduce child marriage.”

It has exacerbated socioeconomic problems, and many impoverished families with young girls see child marriage as the only viable solution to those problems. The United Nations agency has predicted that the pandemic could potentially result in 13 million additional child marriages taking place globally between 2020 and 2030 that may otherwise have been averted.

Similarly, the pandemic has also aggravated the maternal mortality ratio in 14 countries from the Asia-Pacific region including Nepal. The maternal mortality ratio of these countries has worsened to an average of 263 per 100,000 live births. In Nepal, this social indicator used to stand at around 186 per 100,000 live births before the pandemic.

The UNESCAP has also portrayed a dismal picture of domestic resource mobilization in the sub region. “Domestic resource mobilization has fallen short with the sub region having one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the region, and the trend is moving in the wrong direction for domestic budgets funded by domestic taxes,” reads the report. 

 
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