52pc girls face child marriage

One under-15 girl is married in every seven seconds globally, according to a new analysis by Save the Children, which reveals the scale of the threat posed by child marriage.

Girls as young as ten are being forced to marry men, often a lot older than themselves, in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen, India and Somalia.

The report titled "Every Last Girl: Free to live, Free to Learn, Free from Harm" has ranked countries in an index according to child marriage, schooling, teen pregnancy, maternal deaths and number of female MPs.

Bangladesh has 20 percent female MPs, while the under-18 marriage rate is 52.2 percent and schooling under-16 is 73.5 percent, the index shows.

Countries at the bottom of the index include Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia. Countries at the top include Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Save the Children Chief Executive Officer Kevin Watkins said child marriage is not just a form of discrimination; it is a form of violence."Forcing girls to marry much older men robs them of their freedom and amounts to sexual slavery. Instead of being in school, married girls face domestic violence, abuse and rape. They fall pregnant and are exposed to sexually transmitted infections including HIV. Bearing children before their bodies are ready means girls suffer complicated deliveries and even death."

The report also reveals that girls from poor families are more likely to be married early than their richer peers.

India has the highest number of child marriages of any country, partly owing to the large size of its population, with 47 percent of girls married under 18 - around 24.6 million.