Cairo: A survey Conducted recently on Egyptian children and youth by the Center for Information and Decision Support of the Egyptian Cabinet in cooperation with the International Population Council, found that one-quarter of the country's population live in slums. The center, which surveyed around 15,000 young people under 30-years-old said they represent about 25 percent of Egypt's population and nearly 25 million people live in both urban and rural slums. The study showed that about 25 percent of Egyptian youth within the age group 10-29-years-old smoked, about 3 percent of young men in this group take drugs and about 1 percent drank alcohol. It also said that some 80 percent of girls are still subjected to circumcision, or female genital mutilation. With regard to education, the survey results showed that about two million young people in Egypt have never gone to school and the problem is the “lack of access to education is further exacerbated in rural areas than in urban areas.” The report said there is a strong correlation between lack of school attendance and early dropout and the low standard of living and poverty. Nearly 50 percent of all Egyptians live on less than $2 per day. With regard to employment and livelihood, the survey showed that unemployment among girls is about three times higher than the young male people, and the unemployment rate is the highest in the age group 18-24-years-old. “About half of the unemployed in Egypt are holders of secondary technical education,” it said. The survey revealed that almost one-third of young people in Egypt between 15- and 29-years-old have the desire or intention to emigrate to foreign countries for work, especially to the Arab Gulf states. The research also revealed the reluctance of young people in Egypt, both men and women, towards social participation in volunteer work or charitable activity, and it highlighted women to be most reluctant for social participation. “Young people spend 40 minutes a day on average in religious works, and more than 10 percent of girls between 15 and 21. The phenomenon of early marriage is inversely related to their economic level of the family, the Minister for Family and population Moshira Khattab said. “The increasing rate of poverty among children is one of the main problems currently facing Egypt,” she said, calling for action to taken in order to eradicate poverty and “to solve many problems arising from it.” She said that the Childhood and Motherhood Council had carried out a study in 2004 with the al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies that revealed “disappointing” results, which have not been published. “At that time we did not have freedom of speech and expression, such as now and the study showed that at the time that there was a pessimistic outlook that controls young people as well as negative perception of women,” the minister said. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
