Child marriage is on the decline globally thanks largely to a major drop in Indian girls being forced into marriage, according to the United Nations.
The UN children's agency UNICEF has said that the proportion of women who were married as children decreased by 15 per cent in the last decade, from 1 in 4 to approximately 1 in 5.
But at the current rate, UNICEF said there are more than 150 million girls likely to marry by 2030.
The largest decline in child marriage over the last decade was in South Asia, where the risk of a girl being forced to marry before the age of 18 decreased from nearly 50 per cent to 30 per cent. This was mainly due to progress in India.
The legal marriage age in India is 18 but millions of children are forced to tie the knot when they are younger, particularly in poor rural areas.
Many parents marry off their children in the hope of improving their financial security.
The agency attributed the change to better education for girls, government initiatives and strong awareness programmes.
UNICEF's Principal Gender Advisor Anju Malhotra said when a girl is forced to marry as a child, "she faces immediate and lifelong consequences".
"Her odds of finishing school decrease while her odds of being abused by her husband and suffering complications during pregnancy increase. There are also huge societal consequences, and higher risk of intergenerational cycles of poverty."
New data from UNICEF has shown the total number of girls married in childhood is now estimated at 12 million a year.
Worldwide, an estimated 650 million women alive today were married as children.
Additional reporting: AFP
