New York: About 77 percent of girls aged between 15 and 19 in India have been subjected to sexual violence by their spouses, according to a report by UNICEF which also said more than half of the girls in the age group faced physical abuse at the hands of their parents.
The report said that 77 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 years in India have at least once experienced forced sexual intercourse or any other forced sexual acts by their current husband or partner.
Partner violence is also pervasive in South Asia, where at least one in five girls who have ever been married or in union experienced partner violence.
It said the identity of the most common perpetrator varied by the marital status of the victim.
“Not surprisingly, among ever-married girls who experienced physical violence since age 15, a current or former partner was cited most often in all of the countries,” it said.
In India, 41 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 years had experienced physical violence since age 15 by their mother or step-mother while 18 per cent had been subjected to physical violence by their fathers and step-fathers.
India also had the third highest number of young homicide victims in 2012. Nearly 9,400 children and adolescents aged 0 to 19 years were killed in India in 2012.
The report, which draws on data from 190 countries, found that about two-thirds of children worldwide or almost one billion between ages 2 and 14 are subjected to physical punishment by their caregivers on a regular basis.
Bureau Report
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