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The number of girls in India in the age group of 15-19 years who are currently married is down 51 percent since 2000, and the country's average performance across a set of indicators related to child health, education, labour, marriage and violence has improved, a new report has said.
The index score reflects the average level of performance across a set of eight indicators related to child health, education, labour, marriage, childbirth and violence.
The number of girls in India in the age group of 15-19 years who are currently married, is down 51 percent since 2000 and 63 percent since 1990.
"Had rates remained unchanged, there would be 9 million more married girls in India today," it said.
However, even today child marriage prevalence is higher in rural areas as compared to urban areas as these figures are 14.1 percent and 6.9 percent for rural and urban areas respectively for age group 15-19 years, the report says.
"Much remains to be done to reach the most deprived children who tend to be the furthest behind and are always the hardest to reach. Development policies and programmes formulated for children must ensure that there is special focus on children belonging to the vulnerable social groups, households in poverty, and children staying in states performing low on development indicators," it said.
A comparison of End of Childhood Index scores, that evaluates 176 countries on children's access to health care, education, nutrition and protection from 'childhood enders' like child labour and child marriage, finds the overall situation for children has improved in 173 countries since 2000, the report added.
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