'Female Genital Mutilation costs USD 1.4 billion annually'

United Nations: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) poses serious risks to the health and well-being of women and girls and has a crippling economic toll of USD 1.4 billion globally per year in cost of treating its total health impacts, according to the World Health Organisation.

It is estimated that more than 200 million women and girls have undergone FGM, which involves altering or injuring female genital organs for cultural or non-medical reasons.

The procedure is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and 15-years-old, and the impacts on their health and well-being can be immediate from infections, bleeding, or psychological trauma to chronic health conditions that can occur throughout life.

New modelling by the UN agency to coincide with the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, marked on Thursday, reveals that the cost of treating the total health impacts of FGM would amount to USD 1.4 billion globally per

year.

The figure sees individual countries devoting nearly 10 per cent of their yearly expenditure to treat FGM. For some countries, it could be as high as 30 per cent.

"FGM is not only a catastrophic abuse of human rights that significantly harms the physical and mental health of millions of girls and women; it is also a drain on a country's vital economic resources," Director of WHO's Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research Ian Askew said.

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