STATE OF THE WORLD POPULATION 2020 REPORT

Key Findings:

• The Report focuses on the three harmful practices against women: (1) Child Marriage, (2) Son Preference and Gender Biased Sex Selection (GBSS), and (3) Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
  
  
• Son Preference and Gender Biased Sex Selection (GBSS):
  • One in three girls missing globally due to sex selection, both pre- and post-natal, is from India — 46 million out of the total 142 million.
    
    
  • India has the highest rate of excess female deaths at 13.5 per 1,000 female births or one in nine deaths of females below the age of 5 due to postnatal sex selection. Excess female mortality is the difference between observed and expected mortality of the girl child or avoidable death of girls during childhood.
    
    
  
  
  
• Female Genital Mutilation (FGM):
  • 200 million women and girls alive today are affected by FGM.
    
    
  • Health-care providers are increasingly involved in performing “medicalized” FGM, but even that is harmful.
    
    
  
  
  
• Child Marriage:
  • Child marriages are almost universally banned, yet they happen 33,000 times a day, every day, all around the world.
    
    
  • Child marriages are often transactional, with girls married off to a spouse to offload a burden or secure the promise of her care.