UNICEF: More than 200 million girls and women have faced genital mutilation

Over 200 million girls and women in this world have faced genital mutilation. On Friday, the United Nations said that the number is quite higher than earlier estimated, highlighting the need to accelerate efforts to wipe out the practice.

Though the drive to bring female genital mutilation (FGM) to an end has grown with time, experts have cautioned that booming populations in some high prevalence nations have been undermining efforts to deal with the practice broadly condemned as a serious human rights abuse.

On the eve of International Day for Zero Tolerance of FGM, the UN children's agency UNICEF said that in case prevailing trends persist than the number of girls and women facing FGM will rise notably in the coming 15 years.

The UNICEF data includes 30 nations, however, 50% of girls and women who have been cut live in only three nations, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia.

The latest global figure includes roughly 70 million more girls and women than estimated by UNICEF in 2014.

However, this is mainly an outcome of the addition of data from Indonesia which wasn’t included in 2014 because the nation didn’t have any reliable national figures at that time.

UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Geeta Rao Gupta, said, “Female genital mutilation differs across regions, cultures, with some forms involving life-threatening health risks. In every case FGM violates rights of girls and women. We must all accelerate efforts - governments, health professionals, community leaders, parents and families - to eliminate the practice”.

The ancient ritual is practiced throughout a swathe of African countries and pockets of Asia and the Middle East. The practice generally involves the partial or total removal of external genitalia of a girl.

In the worst form of this practice the vaginal opening is sewed up. There are a number of countries wherein girls are generally cut before they turn five.