Teen pregnancy afflicts 4 girls a day in Peru

Each day in Peru four girls under the age of 15 get pregnant, the country's Minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations Ana Maria Romero said here Tuesday.

"Generally, these girls are in a situation of poverty, and live in dysfunctional households with problems," Romero said at an event marking the International Day of the Girl Child and warned that the problem of teenage pregnancy is taking on epidemic proportions.

Unequal development between the country's rural and urban populations exacerbates the condition for those living in the countryside, she said.

"If she is from a rural area ... she is at a tremendous disadvantage," said Romero, citing that 68 percent of girls in rural communities do not complete college, while that figure is 25 percent in urban centers.

Among indigenous communities of the Andes mountain region, where the mother tongue is Quechua, not Spanish, the situation is even graver, with only three out of 10 girls completing secondary school. In the country's Amazon region, the figure drops even further to one out of 10 girls, said Romero.

The day was designated to highlight the obstacles young girls around the world still face due to their age and gender. Endi