A/HRC/56/CRP.8 illiteracy rates compared to the rest of the country and are often relegated to household work and chores. In the context of the escalating conflict engulfing Rakhine State, Rohingya girls’ inability to access formal education puts them at higher risk of underage marriage or being trafficked, often for the purpose of marriage, to other countries. E. Negative coping mechanisms and protection concerns 148. Women often adopt negative coping mechanisms to help their families survive, including by cutting down their food intake, reducing purchases of household items, using personal savings, and borrowing money from relatives. According to research conducted by UNDP and UN Women in Myanmar in late 2021, six out of ten loans taken out to deal with economic hardships were in the name of a woman.74 Increased unemployment of men additionally puts more pressure on women to find livelihood opportunities and exposes women to increased risk of domestic violence due to heightened stress and tension within the home. 149. Economic difficulties and unemployment are pushing more women and adolescent girls, especially those living in conflict-affected areas, into unsafe and informal work, including rice planting and harvesting, sex work, and work in mines and casinos. These livelihood pathways also are putting women at higher risk of human rights violations, including wage exploitation, trafficking, forced labor, and sexual abuse. Women in northern and eastern Myanmar, including Kachin, Shan, Karenni, and Karen states, have increasingly crossed borders to find work opportunities, exacerbating their vulnerability to unsafe migration, trafficking, and discrimination due to lack of immigration status. 150. A member of an ethnic women’s organization shared her concerns about the economic impacts on women and girls’ safety and security with the Special Rapporteur: [Since the coup,] women have lost their right to work. Most people used to farm. Others had small businesses. Since 2021, most people are not able to work—living in [the] forest or displaced, landmines in their village, constant bombing, military stationed in house and town. Because of all this, the consequence is that people cannot work. There is heightened domestic violence, sexual violence, and drug issues. Parents are sending [their] children to work in foreign countries. There is smuggling and human trafficking. 151. Civil society and human rights organizations have highlighted the issue of women and girls in desperate economic situations becoming more vulnerable to sexual exploitation since the coup. Risk of exploitation is especially acute for ethnic women and displaced women. Widespread male unemployment contributes to the problem. Many men are seeking work in China or Thailand, leading to family separation and increased risks of sexual exploitation for women who are on their own. 152. The Special Rapporteur has received credible reports that young women are becoming increasingly vulnerable to sex trafficking. In Rakhine State, local leaders and organizations report they have seen an increase in the trafficking of young Rakhine women to China to become wives. This pattern has been evident since the COVID-19 pandemic but has been exacerbated by the political and economic conditions in Rakhine State following the coup and resumption of local conflict. In Northern Shan State, there are reports that an online dating platform operating via WeChat called “Date Girl” has become a vehicle for trafficking young women. The overwhelming majority of women being trafficked through Date Girl are between the ages of 15 and 22. 74 34 UNDP and UN Women, ���Regressing Gender Equality in Myanmar: Women living under the pandemic and military rule,” 7 March 2022, p. 11.