Child marriages will cost developing countries trillions of dollars over the next decade, greatly affecting global efforts to eradicate poverty, the World Bank warned on Tuesday.
According to experts, about one in every three girls in the developing world is married before the age of 18, with one girl married off every two seconds.
The World Bank said that the eradication of child marriages would slow down population growth while boosting girls’ educational achievements, ultimately increasing their earnings.
A stop in the vice would also enable women have healthier and better educated children, further boosting prosperity.
“Child marriage not only puts a stop to girls’ hopes and dreams, it also hampers efforts to end poverty and achieve economic growth and equity,” World Bank economist Quentin Wodon said in a statement.
“Ending this practice is not only the morally right thing to do but also the economically smart thing to do,” added Wodon, who co-authored the report – the first to look at the economic impact of child marriage.
One of the biggest economic benefits of ending child marriage would derive from a reduction in population growth, according to the study co-authored by the International Center for Research on Women.
Girls who marry young have more children on average than those who delay marriage.
Last week, Tanzania’s President John Magufuli said schoolgirls who get pregnant would not be allowed to continue with their education, saying they were a bad influence to the other students.
The president’s stance has been met with condemnation from the country’s NGO’s, who say education is every girl’s right.
