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Sri Lanka’s future hinges on paving a path for 10-year-old girls to thrive, study says
View(s):From Kapila Bandara in Hong Kong
Politicians must allow Sri Lanka’s 10-year old girls to exercise their rights, stay healthy, complete their education, and decide about their own lives so that the heavily-indebted island will reap economic rewards, a global study suggests.
According to estimates by the United Nations Population Fund in a report today, the population of 10-year-olds in Sri Lanka amounts to 174,000. The UNFPA report, titled, State of The World Population 2016, recommends that countries invest in 10-year-olds.
By committing state resources to a 10-year-old girl in Sri Lanka over the next 15 years, the UN report estimates the country stands to gain US$8,781 (Rs 1.3 million) in individual earnings until 2030. Choosing not to invest in a 10-year-old girl would mean earnings of US$4,176.
A 10-year-old who is allowed to realise her rights and who gets the support of family, community and country, can help create the better future we desire, the UNFPA says. What the world will look like in 15 years will depend on what we do to support the potential of a 10-year-old girl today, the study says.
If we fail the girl child, we do so at our shared peril: we squander a powerful triple dividend from investing in the potential of all 10-year-olds as children, as future adults and as parents of the next generation, the reports says, citing The Lancet Commissions, 2016 study.
In 15 years, a girl who is 10 years old, will be 25. Will she still be left behind? Or will she be enjoying her human rights and well-being, and exploring the many avenues open to her, knowing that, when her own daughter turns 10, she will experience more of the same? Only the latter scenario will allow the world to claim that it transformed the course of development and met the challenge of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, the UNFPA says.
Much depends on the choices people make, from parents to policymakers, educators to health-care professionals, economists to entrepreneurs, journalists to community leaders.
An estimated 125 million 10-year-olds are alive today, part of the largest number of young people in human history, the UNFPA estimates. Of these, just over 60 million are girls, and 65 million are boys. And more than half of the 60 million are in Asia and the Pacific.
Failure to invest effectively in 10-year-old girls, and boys as well, may have significant effects on economic growth, potentially holding back the progress of countries for years, if not generations.
Whether a country’s economy grows, stagnates or collapses in the future depends in no small way on how well it supports its 10-year-old girls today, the UNFPA says.
Countries that choose to develop policies and institutions to build a 10-year-old girl’s human capital through quality education and access to health information and services stand to realise major economic gains. Those that choose to do little or nothing to tear down barriers standing in the way of a girl’s realizing her full potential will experience significant impediments to economic growth and development, the UNFPA says.