The report, “Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls 2012,” was released in New York by Plan International on the United Nation’s first International Day of the Girl.
“The estimated 75 million girls missing from classrooms across the world is a major violation of rights and a huge waste of young potential,” the child poverty alleviation group said in launching the report.
A total of one in three girls is denied education, but Plan’s report focuses especially on the 39 million girls aged between 11 and 15, right on the cusp of becoming young women, who are out of school.
The report — which coincided with the news this week of a 14-year-old Pakistani girl gunned down for her criticism of Taliban campaigns against girl’s education — underlined the hugely positive impact that school can have on girls in poor countries.
