Half of Salvadoran pregnant girls stay with their partners forcibly, which frustrates their education, says a UN report.
An average of 69 children and teenagers between 10 and 17 years old become pregnant every day in that Central American country, 55% of them live in de facto union and only 7.1% are married.
According to the researcher Paula Martes, most of those girls belong to the socially and economically “disadvantaged” sectors, which are less educated.
The UNFPA representative in El Salvador, Hugo González, said told the press that maternity sinks them in an unfortunate situation of violence, poverty and lack of access to the exercise of their rights.
The research was conducted with a sample of 424 girls or teenagers who gave birth in 2012.
The occurrence of unions in this group constitutes a clear violation of their fundamental rights, evidenced by the fact that 5 out of 10 reported become victims of some form of violence within the union,”
says the study.
Because of the “early interruption” of the educational process, the average schooling of girls is only 5.7 years old and, due to the poverty conditions, some of them are looking for work, although 7 out of 10 are “inactive”.
In most cases, the investigation found that their aggressor is a family member, mainly fathers, stepfathers, uncles and cousins.
The Minister of Health, Violeta Menjívar, stated that last year, 25,132 out of the 83,478 mothers who gave birth in the country, were teenagers (1,445 of them girls between the ages of 10 and 14).
Nine girls died due to the pregnancy. So far this year four cases have been reported. Half of them were suicides.