NEW DELHI: Nearly a quarter, or close to 19 million, of adolescent girls have experienced physical or sexual partner violence by the time they turn 20 years old, a World Health Organization (WHO) study said.
The WHO study published in the The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal was based on surveys from thousands of adolescent girls aged between 15 and 19 from 161 countries.
It showed that 24% of adolescent girls had been subjected to intimate partner violence at least once, with 16% reporting it in the past year.
“Intimate partner violence is starting alarmingly early for millions of young women around the world,” said Dr Pascale Allotey, Director of WHO’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research Department.
“Given that violence during these critical formative years can cause profound and lasting harms, it needs to be taken more seriously as a public health issue - with a focus on prevention and targeted support.”
Partner violence can have devastating impacts on young people’s health, educational achievement, future relationships, and lifelong prospects.
From a health perspective, it heightens the likelihood of injuries, depression, anxiety disorders, unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and many other physical and psychological conditions.
The acts of violence included kicking or hitting as well as any unwanted sexual act, such as rape or attempted rape.
The report said that intimate partner violence against adolescent girls was higher in low-income and lower-middle-income countries and regions than in high-income countries and regions.
Countries with higher rates of female secondary school enrolment and those with more gender-equal inheritance laws had a lower prevalence of intimate partner violence against adolescent girls.
Lower-income countries and societies with a high prevalence of child marriage had a higher prevalence of physical or sexual intimate partner violence against adolescent girls.
Child marriage (before the age of 18 years) significantly escalates risks, since spousal age differences create power imbalances, economic dependency, and social isolation – all of which increase the likelihood of enduring abuse, it said.
Based on WHO’s estimates, the worst affected regions are Oceania (47 per cent) and central sub-Saharan Africa (40 per cent), for instance, while the lowest rates are in central Europe (10 per cent) and central Asia (11 per cent).
The lowest rate was in Europe where 10 per cent reported incidents and in Central Asia (11 per cent), according to the study, which based its analysis on data from WHO’s global database on the prevalence of violence against women, published in 2018.
The study highlights the urgent need to strengthen support services and early prevention measures tailored for adolescents, alongside actions to advance women’s and girls’ agency and rights - from school-based programmes that educate both boys and girls on healthy relationships and violence prevention, to legal protections, and economic empowerment.
Since many adolescents lack their own financial resources, they can face particular challenges in leaving abusive relationships.
“The study shows that to end gender-based violence, countries need to have policies and programmes in place that increase equality for women and girls,” said study author Dr Lynnmarie Sardinha, Technical Officer for Violence Against Women Data and Measurement at WHO.
“This means ensuring secondary education for all girls, securing gender-equal property rights and ending harmful practices such as child marriage, which are often underpinned by the same inequitable gender norms that perpetuate violence against women and girls.”
Currently, no country is on track to eliminate violence against women and girls by the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal target date.
Ending child marriage - which affects 1 in 5 girls globally - and expanding girls’ access to secondary education will be critical factors for reducing partner violence against adolescent girls.
