Invest in girls, reduce poverty

We are passing through the Global Action Week (May 2-8), which is observed annually across the world to highlight the importance of "education for all".

Let us use this important occasion to take a closer look at this year's theme: Gender equality in education. Education leads to profound life-changing choices. But even in this advanced age, more than 39 million girls in the world do not have access to primary-level education and are thus denied this fundamental human right.

Inequality in education cripples the lives of millions of girls and women around the world. While women's rights have made significant progress, women are still second-rate citizens in a lot of countries. According to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) figures, women perform 66 percent of the world's work and help produce 50 percent of the global food output but earn less than 10 percent of the global income and own just 1 percent of the global property stock. Although the gender gap in education has narrowed over the past decade, girls are still at a disadvantage, especially when it comes to higher secondary education. Women in South Asia, for example, have only half as many years of education as men, and the female enrolment rate at the higher secondary level is two-thirds that of males.