Let us invest in teenage girls

Monday July 11 is World Population Day and the theme this year is interesting and significant—Investing in teenage girls. It comes during a year when Hilary Clinton is likely to become the first female President of the most powerful country in the world, the United States. Reports indicate Ms.

Clinton is likely to select a female as her running mate for the November elections against the controversial Donald Trump who complained recently he was fighting against two parties—the Democratic party and his own Republican party. Among the names being mentioned as Hilary Clinton’s possible running mates are the Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the first Afro-American woman to hold this high Cabinet rank post. Others mentioned for the Vice Presidential ticket include the socialist Democratic Senator Elizabeth Ann Warren through whom Ms. Clinton hopes to win the support of millions of people who voted for her rival Berny Sanders at the Democratic party’s primary election. Another significant feature in what could be called the upcoming year of women is the possibility that the United Nations may have its first female Secretary General -- New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Helen Clark who served three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008 and is now the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).   

In a message to mark the event, the UN says that around the world, teenage girls face enormous challenges. Many are considered by their communities or parents to be ready for marriage and motherhood. Many are forced out of school, damaging their future prospects. Even among girls who stay in school, access to basic information about their health, human rights and reproductive rights could be hard to come by, leaving them vulnerable to illness, injury and exploitation.   

The UN says these challenges are exacerbated among marginalized girls, such as members of ethnic minorities or those living in poverty or remote areas. Yet when teenage girls are empowered, when they know about their rights and are given the tools to succeed, they become agents of positive change in their communities.   

The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) has a programme aim to end child marriage, curb adolescent pregnancy, and to empower girls to make informed choices about their health and lives. In 2015 alone, UNFPA programmes helped 11.2 million girls between the ages of 10 and 19 to gain access to sexual and reproductive health services and information.   

UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin has appealed to leaders and communities to focus on and stand up for the human rights of the most marginalized teenage girls, particularly those who are poor, out of school, exploited, or subjected to harmful traditional practices, including child marriage. Marginalized girls are vulnerable to poor reproductive health and more likely to become mothers while still children themselves. They have a right to understand and control their own bodies and shape their own lives.   

In terms of figures, the world population is more than 7.4 billion. China has the largest population with more than 1.4 billion followed by India 1.29 billion, the United States 324 million, Indonesia 258 million and Brazil 205 million. According to the latest census there are about 2.1 billion Christians and 1.5 billion Muslims with third place going to atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion. They number about 1.1 billion. There are about 1 billion Hindus and 487 million Buddhists.   

In Sri Lanka, the current population is about 20.8 million. Some 50.7% or 10.5 million of our people are females while 49.3% or 10.2 million are males. Of the 5. 1 million under 15 years of age, 2.6 million are male and 2.5 million are female. In line with the UN theme of Investing in teenage girls, the government needs to pay much more attention to the education and rights of these teenage girls who could play a vital role in the evolution of the development process because of their feminine ingenuity.