1. www.brac.net Profiles of the Adolescents and Youths in Bangladesh Syeda Sitwat Shahed Narayan Das Research and Evaluation Division, BRAC 7 February, 2012 Global Learning Meeting on Youth BCDM, Rajendrapur, Gazipur 7-8 February, 2012

2. www.brac.net Objectives Main objective is to document detailed profiles of the youths and adolescents in Bangladesh, specifically on: -Marital status -Education -Savings, credit and training -Unemployment -Perception about various social issues, And to suggest policies for youth development

3. www.brac.net Data Sources  1988-2008 panel data covering 62 villages across 58 districts and a total of 2010 households  Nationally representative survey on adolescents and youths conducted in 2005. Total sample of 14,942 adolescents and youths aged 10-24 years

4. www.brac.net Demographic Characteristics Distribution of children and youths by age in rural area (1988) Distribution of children and youths by age in rural area (2008)

5. www.brac.net Despite economic development in 1988-2008, there has been no progress in reducing early marriage of the boys Percentage of rural boys ever married Marital Status

6. www.brac.net Percentage of rural girls ever married There had been some success in reducing early marriage during 1988-2000, particularly for 16 years aged girls but little success after 2000. Remarkable economic development during 2000s didn’t contribute to reducing early marriage Marital Status

7. www.brac.net Marital status of the boys and girls by wealth groups, 2008 (rural)  Poverty is not the sole cause of early marriage, particularly of the girls.  Creating good social space and community level awareness may successfully address early marriage of the girls Marital Status BoysGirls

8. www.brac.net Trends in enrolment rate (%), rural  Remarkable improvement in secondary education but little improvement in higher education.  Severe gender disparity in post secondary level education  Investment in girls education is undervalued Education

9. www.brac.net Enrollment rate by wealth groups, 2008 (rural)  Up to secondary level, female enrollment exceeds their counterpart.  At tertiary level, the rate falls sharply for both sexes but more so for the poor. Education

10. www.brac.net AgeBoysGirls Age:15-1912.3 Age: 20-2422.831.6 Savings and credit (2005, Bangladesh) Percentage of the youths with outstanding credit Percentage of the youths with cash savings BoysGirls Age 15-19 2427.8 Age 20-24 31.441.8  Credits are predominantly from informal sources (not shown), demonstrating that there is demand for credit among the youths.

11. www.brac.net Participation in Training (2005, Bangladesh) A recent study using baseline data on BRAC ’ s adolescent program participants showed that youth who received IGA training are 8% more likely to participate in income generating activities.

12. www.brac.net Trends in unemployment rate among the dropping out youths (male, rural) 19882008 Age (Years) Average years of schooling Unemployment (%) Average years of schooling Unemployment (%) 15-194.79.36.6 11.24 20-255.17.027.9 8.4 Unemployment Education does not always ensure employment. Educated people probably feel shy to be employed in ill-paid jobs. Efforts need to be made to provide opportunities for self- employment, as increased no. of educated people would enter the labor market during the next decades but salaried employment may not increase at the same proportion.

13. www.brac.net Percentage of girls sexually harassed (2005, Bangladesh) Sexual harassment

14. www.brac.net BoysGirls Age group 10-14 Age group 15-24 Age group 10-14 Age group 15-24 Girls should be married before legal age (% responding yes) 13.57.110.25.9 Believes that boys should be more educated compared to girls (%) 32.721.514.213.9 Perceptions about marriage and education (2005, Bangladesh) Perception of the adolescents and youths Girls still undervalue themselves!

15. www.brac.net Policy Implications  As proportion of children in total population has declined while that of the youths (15-29 years) has increased, there is potential to divert resources allocated for children to youth development.  Economic development particularly after 2000 has not contributed to reducing early marriage, implying that effort should be made on non-economic issues like raising community level awareness, empowerment of the girls and most importantly creating good social space for the girls.  15-18 is the critical age group, when significant dropping out occurs among both sexes, and girls are married off. Program designed for addressing these issues should make strong focus on this age group.  Significant school dropping out among richest suggests that efforts should be made to make the parents and youths aware about the value of education even if education does not ensure salaried employment.  A significant proportion of the educated males remain unemployed and this proportion may increase further as enrolment rate has recently increased remarkably. Effort should be made on generating self-employment. Potential areas for further employment generation should be identified and relevant training can be provided to youth followed by access to credit.

16. www.brac.net Thank you