Nearly half the girls in India are married before they are 18
Interesting yet frightening statistics and article about work of the Elders in impacting Women's and Girls rights on the Subcontinent.
In India, nearly half of all girls are married before they turn the legal age of 18. In the state of Bihar, the statistics are even grimmer: 69% of girls are wedded before theyre 18 and 48% before they turn 15. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and a group of global leaders known as the Elders are trying to change this. Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for his role in helping end apartheid in South Africa, led a delegation to Bihar last week to try to understand the causes of child marriages and to meet with organizations working to bring an end to the practice. Tutu spoke with TIMEs Nilanjana Bhowmick about the problem of child marriages in India and what the country needs to do to stop them.
Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2012/02/27/archbishop-desmond-tutu-why-he-wants-to-save-indias-girls/#ixzz1nd92Qzc2