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Ministry of Women and Child Development | Ministry of Health and Family Welfare | Ministry of External Affairs
On February 6, 2026, the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, top leaders from UN Women, UNICEF, WHO, and other agencies issued a joint statement. An estimated 4.5 million girls are at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM) in 2026 alone. While the number of girls subjected to FGM has dropped from one in two to one in three over the last three decades, over 230 million women and girls globally continue to live with its lifelong physical and mental health consequences.
Progress and the 2030 Ambition The transition to global elimination requires building on recent momentum:
Accelerated Gains: Half of all progress achieved since 1990 has occurred in the last decade, showing that community-led movements are effectively shifting social norms.
Support for Elimination: Nearly two-thirds of the population in prevalent countries now support the elimination of FGM.
2030 Target: To meet the SDG target of total elimination by 2030, global efforts must transition from slow change to rapid, investment-backed acceleration.
Economic and Health Realities The statement highlights the massive fiscal burden and the potential returns on prevention:
Treatment Costs: Managing the physical and mental health complications of FGM costs health systems approximately USD 1.4 billion per year.
High Yield Investments: A targeted investment of USD 2.8 billion is estimated to yield a USD 28 billion return, demonstrating that prevention is an economic imperative.
Survivor Support: FGM leads to lifelong complications, necessitating comprehensive healthcare, psychosocial support, and legal assistance.
Systemic Challenges and Risks Critical hurdles remain in the path toward elimination:
Declining Investment: Waning international support and funding cuts in health and child protection are currently constraining prevention efforts.
Medicalization Threat: UN leaders warn against the “systematic pushback” and arguments for medicalizing FGM to reduce harm, emphasizing that the practice cannot be justified in any setting.
Community-Led Solutions: Success depends on engaging religious leaders, parents, and health workers through formal education and traditional media to amplify prevention.
What is the “Medicalization of FGM” in the context of global health policy? The medicalization of female genital mutilation refers to the practice being carried out by any category of health-care provider, whether in a public or private clinic, at home, or elsewhere. UN leaders strongly condemn this trend, noting that it creates a false sense of safety and legitimacy for a fundamental human rights violation. Policy frameworks emphasize that FGM has no medical benefits and that involving health professionals violates medical ethics, undermines elimination efforts, and fails to address the underlying gender inequality and psychological trauma associated with the practice.
Policy Relevance
The UN statement underscores the need for India to strengthen its domestic and international commitments to ending gender-based violence, even though it is not typically included in the list of countries—mostly in Africa and the Middle East—where FGM is widely prevalent and tracked via systematic national surveys.
Strategic Impact:
Legal and Health Safeguards: Strengthening the enforcement of protections against harmful practices in India is essential to align with the SDG 5.3 target of eliminating FGM by 2030.
Countering Medicalization: The Ministry of Health must issue strict advisories to medical practitioners and nursing associations to prevent the “medicalization” of any harmful traditional practices.
Community-Led Governance: Utilizing the Panchayati Raj system to fund grassroots “Zero Tolerance” networks can mirror the successful community-led models highlighted by the UN.
Leveraging Economic Dividends: Integrating the 10:1 Return on Investment data into the National Health Mission can justify increased budget allocations for survivor support services.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: How can the Ministry of Women and Child Development collaborate with civil society to create a ‘Survivor-Led Response Fund’ that provides context-tailored health and legal assistance to victims of harmful practices?
Follow the full news here: UN Statement on Ending FGM | UN Women