Nepal fares better than many low-income countries in terms of gender equality, according to a report on countries offering most opportunities to girls.

The Save the Children report titled “Every Last Girl: Free to Live, Free to Learn, Free from Harm” ranks

Nepal 85th among 144 countries in terms of the opportunities offered to girl child, ahead of its better-off neighbour India which is placed in the 90th position.

The report has lauded the progress made by Nepal in gender equality despite constraints of resources.

Nepal scored higher than many low-income countries, due to its relatively strong lower-secondary school

completion rate for girls, which, at 86 percent, is similar to Spain’s.

Nepal is said to be putting gender equality and girls at the forefront of its planning and budgeting.

The report cites Nepal’s mandatory provision to allocate minimum local budget for women, children and so-called lower castes, and affirmative action to

increase the number of female teachers. It has also lauded Nepal’s action plans to end child marriage.

Meanwhile, the island nation of Maldives scored higher than other South Asian nation in terms of the opportunities offered to girl child. Maldives came 50th in the global index, while Afghanistan ranked 121st.

The report ranks countries as the hardest place to be a girl based on schooling, child marriage, teen pregnancy, maternal deaths and the number of women in parliament.

Chad, Niger, Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia were ranked at the bottom of the index.

One girl under 15 is married every seven seconds, according to the report. It also says that girls as young as 10 are forced to marry much older men in countries including Afghanistan, Yemen, India and Somalia.

Marriage can trigger a cycle of disadvantage across every part of a girl’s life, the report argues.

“Girls who marry too

early often can’t attend school, and are more likely to face domestic violence, abuse and rape,” the BBC quoted Save the Children International CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt as saying.