42 percent girls under the age of 19 face sexual violence in India: Unicef study

A Unicef study titled ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’, which looks at child abuse across the world, says the close to 42 percent of all girls in India have faced some sort of sexual violence before the age of 19.

According to a Times of India article , data from the study showed that 10 percent of Indian girls would have faced sexual violence when they are aged 10-14, and 30 percent in the 15-19 age group.

Additionally, the data shows that close to 77 percent of the girls in the age group of 15-19 faced sexual violence from their current partner or husband. In 6 percent of cases, the perpetrator was a relative, while 4 percent said it was friend or acquaintance who sexually assaulted them. Cases of stranger rape or sexual violence in India for the age group stood at mere 3 percent.

The numbers indicate that for most girls growing up in India, sexual violence is fairly common and that in most cases it is not strangers but rather husbands or partners that are committing such acts.

Where sexual violence is concerned, the only bit of good news is that India doesn’t fare as badly as the African nations. According to the report,  prevalence of partner violence is 70 percent or higher in Congo and Equatorial Guinea and approaches or exceeds 50 percent in Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Overall the report notes that globally,  one in 10 girls around the world under 20 years old, (an estimated 120 million), have been forced into sex acts, and one in three married adolescent girls, about 84 million, have been victims of emotional, physical or sexual violence committed by their husbands or partners.

But the India numbers gain more significance in the backdrop of another report published by UNICEF which states that after Bangladesh, India has the second highest rate of child marriage in South Asia.

The percentage of women who were married before the age of 18 in Bangladesh stood at 65 percent, while in India it stood at 43 percent. The study also noted that almost half of all girls in South Asia marry before the age of 18 and that overall one in five girls in the region ends up getting married before 15. The report noted that girls with no education are 5.5 times more likely to marry or enter into union as those with at least 10 years of education.

When one looks at the two reports together, it makes sense as to why 42 percent of girls have faced violence. As the UNICEF report on sexual violence shows that in India girls between the age of 15-19 are most likely to be abused either by their husband or partner or a relative and not strangers. Given that nearly 43 percent are married off before the age of 18, the stats on sexual violence are not all surprising.