Women power: Hazy picture

Significant progress has been made, but there is still a lot of catching up to do

As the world celebrated International Women’s Day yesterday, some great news emerged out of India. A report published by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said the proportion of girls undergoing child marriage in India has come down sharply over the past decade. South Asia has witnessed the largest decline in child marriages worldwide in the past 10 years, as a girl’s risk of marrying before her 18th birthday has dropped by more than a third, from nearly 50 per cent to 30 per cent, in large part due to progress in India. It is true that even now, 27