Social issues in Brazil
Encyclopedia
Brazil
ranks 49.3 in the Gini coefficient
index, with the richest 10% of Brazilians receiving 42.7% of the nation's income, while the poorest 10% receive less than 1.2%.
s, slum
s in the country's metropolitan areas and remote upcountry regions that suffer with economic underdevelopment and below-par standards of living. An attempt to mitigate these problems is the "Fome Zero
" hunger-eradication program implemented by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
in 2003. Part of this is "Bolsa Família
," a major anti-poverty program that gives money directly to impoverished families so as to keep their children in school.
Lula's government reduced 19.8% the rate of poverty based on labour income during June 2002 and June 2006 according to Fundação Getúlio Vargas
. In June 2006, the rate of misery was 18.57% of the population.
The rate of poverty is in part attributed to the country's economic inequality
. Brazil ranks among the world's highest nations in the Gini coefficient
index of inequality assessment. A study on the subject shows that the poor segment constitutes roughly one third of the population, and the extremely poor make out 13% (2005 figures). However, the same study shows the income growth of the poorest 20% population segment to be almost in par with China, while the richest 10% are stagnating.
and income inequality as recorded over the 2003 to 2008 period. By the same token, the country may record an absolute poverty rate of 4%. The data, were taken from a document issued by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea), linked to the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of the Presidency of the Republic. People are considered extremely poor who earn up to 25% of one minimum wage per month, whereas the absolutely poor earn up to 50% of one minimum wage per month.
"If we make a projection of the best performances recently recorded in Brazil in terms of poverty and inequality reduction (2003-2008 period) to the year of 2016, the result would be a very positive social outlook. Brazil may virtually overcome the problem of extreme poverty, as well as attain a national absolute poverty rate of only 4%, which means its near-eradication," the document states. According to the document, the majority of the progress achieved by Brazil in fighting poverty and inequality is either directly or indirectly related to the structuring of public policies of social
intervention, provided for in the Federal Constitution of 1988.
The Ipea also points out three other decisive factors to fighting poverty and inequality: increased social spending in the country, which went from 19% of the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) in 1990 to 21.9% of the GDP in 2005; decentralization of social policy, with an extended role played by municipalities in the implementation of social policies, as their share of social spending rose 53.8% from 1980 to 2008; and social participation in the formatting and management of social policies. According to the institute, institutional consolidation of the framework of social laws in Brazil would be an important step towards maintaining, in coming years, the fight against poverty and inequality in the country.
"It is important that a new law
be passed regulating social
responsibility
and commitment, with goals, funds, timetables and coordination, so that Brazil may achieve social indicators similar to those currently seen in developed countries. All of that must obviously take place with no backlashes in terms of participation of society
in the formatting, monitoring and control of public policies," states the document.
The Brazilian federal government has also implemented and expanded in the last years major subsidy programs, such as Bolsa Família
and Fome Zero
, for families deemed to be in need of assistance.
s and gang violence are common. Police brutality
and corruption are widespread. In response, the Brazilian government established the National Public Security Force
(FNSP) in June 2004 by the Ministry of Justice, to act in situations of emergency, in times of crisis.
Public education
in Brazil
is free at all levels. Primary education is compulsory as per the article 208 of the Brazilian Constitution.
Most Primary schools are constitutionally maintained either by municipalities or the states. Both entities are obliged to apply at least 25% of their budgets in education. Since economic disparities exist between states, richer states and cities have more money to deliver quality education, whereas in the poorer cities and States the education
will be generally of lower standards.
School non-attendance by absence and malnutrition
is one of the biggest educational problems in Brazil
. Work under the age of 16 is forbidden by law, however Brazil has many cases of child labor. Children from large poor families start working from the age of 10 in order to help their parents, despite the law of compulsory education between the ages of 10 and 14. Other reasons for school non-attendance are the lack of sufficient school places and the high examination failure rate. Malnutrition also materially affects the intellectual development of children, giving them little chance of adapting to an educational environment.
The standards of primary and secondary public education have been falling over the past decades. Since the country invested little in education, public education's standards dropped and the middle class moved their children to private schools. Nowadays, practically all the middle class
sends their children to private schools. Costs may vary from as little as R$ 600 (US$ 240) p.a. in smaller cities to R$ 30,000 (US$ 17,000) p.a. in São Paulo
or Rio de Janeiro
.
The situation has been improving over the past few years thanks to two official projects: Bolsa Escola, by which parents who keep their children in school and with good health receive a small allowance, and FUNDEF, by which municipalities receive federal funds in accordance to the number of children enrolled. Bolsa Escola was a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that offered mothers in poor households a monthly stipend if their children ages 6 to 15 attended school on a
regular basis. The program was implemented across all of Brazil between the years 2001
and 2003, until it was folded into the broader Bolsa Família
program.
Brazil is participating of the One Laptop Per Child project, aiming at providing low cost laptops to poor children in developing countries, but the program is moving slowly.
(per 1,000 live births)
Source: Fundação IBGE, Census of Population, 1991 and
2000.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ranks 49.3 in the Gini coefficient
Gini coefficient
The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini and published in his 1912 paper "Variability and Mutability" ....
index, with the richest 10% of Brazilians receiving 42.7% of the nation's income, while the poorest 10% receive less than 1.2%.
Poverty
Poverty in Brazil is most visually represented by the various favelaFavela
A favela is the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil. In the late 18th century, the first settlements were called bairros africanos . This was the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many freed black slaves moved in...
s, slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
s in the country's metropolitan areas and remote upcountry regions that suffer with economic underdevelopment and below-par standards of living. An attempt to mitigate these problems is the "Fome Zero
Fome Zero
Fome Zero is a Brazilian government program introduced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2003, with the objective to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty in Brazil.-Contents of the program:...
" hunger-eradication program implemented by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
in 2003. Part of this is "Bolsa Família
Bolsa Família
Bolsa Família is a social welfare program of the Brazilian government, part of the Fome Zero network of federal assistance programs. Bolsa Família provides financial aid to poor Brazilian families; if they have children, families must ensure that the infants attend school and are vaccinated...
," a major anti-poverty program that gives money directly to impoverished families so as to keep their children in school.
Lula's government reduced 19.8% the rate of poverty based on labour income during June 2002 and June 2006 according to Fundação Getúlio Vargas
Fundação Getúlio Vargas
Fundação Getulio Vargas is a Brazilian higher education institution founded on December 20, 1944. It offers regular courses of Economics, Business Administration, Law, Social Sciences and Information technology management...
. In June 2006, the rate of misery was 18.57% of the population.
The rate of poverty is in part attributed to the country's economic inequality
Economic inequality
Economic inequality comprises all disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries. The issue of economic inequality is related to the ideas of...
. Brazil ranks among the world's highest nations in the Gini coefficient
Gini coefficient
The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini and published in his 1912 paper "Variability and Mutability" ....
index of inequality assessment. A study on the subject shows that the poor segment constitutes roughly one third of the population, and the extremely poor make out 13% (2005 figures). However, the same study shows the income growth of the poorest 20% population segment to be almost in par with China, while the richest 10% are stagnating.
Reduction
Brazil may achieve social indicators similar to those of developed countries by 2016 if the country is able to maintain the same rate of reduction of extreme povertyExtreme poverty
Extreme poverty, as defined in 1996 by Joseph Wresinski, the founder of ATD Fourth World, is:"The lack of basic security connotes the absence of one or more factors enabling individuals and families to assume basic responsibilities and to enjoy fundamental rights. The situation may become...
and income inequality as recorded over the 2003 to 2008 period. By the same token, the country may record an absolute poverty rate of 4%. The data, were taken from a document issued by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea), linked to the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of the Presidency of the Republic. People are considered extremely poor who earn up to 25% of one minimum wage per month, whereas the absolutely poor earn up to 50% of one minimum wage per month.
"If we make a projection of the best performances recently recorded in Brazil in terms of poverty and inequality reduction (2003-2008 period) to the year of 2016, the result would be a very positive social outlook. Brazil may virtually overcome the problem of extreme poverty, as well as attain a national absolute poverty rate of only 4%, which means its near-eradication," the document states. According to the document, the majority of the progress achieved by Brazil in fighting poverty and inequality is either directly or indirectly related to the structuring of public policies of social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
intervention, provided for in the Federal Constitution of 1988.
The Ipea also points out three other decisive factors to fighting poverty and inequality: increased social spending in the country, which went from 19% of the Gross Domestic Product
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
(GDP) in 1990 to 21.9% of the GDP in 2005; decentralization of social policy, with an extended role played by municipalities in the implementation of social policies, as their share of social spending rose 53.8% from 1980 to 2008; and social participation in the formatting and management of social policies. According to the institute, institutional consolidation of the framework of social laws in Brazil would be an important step towards maintaining, in coming years, the fight against poverty and inequality in the country.
"It is important that a new law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
be passed regulating social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
responsibility
Responsibility
Responsibility may refer to:* Collective responsibility** Cabinet collective responsibility, a constitutional Convention in Governments using the Westminster System* Corporate responsibility** Corporate social responsibility...
and commitment, with goals, funds, timetables and coordination, so that Brazil may achieve social indicators similar to those currently seen in developed countries. All of that must obviously take place with no backlashes in terms of participation of society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
in the formatting, monitoring and control of public policies," states the document.
The Brazilian federal government has also implemented and expanded in the last years major subsidy programs, such as Bolsa Família
Bolsa Família
Bolsa Família is a social welfare program of the Brazilian government, part of the Fome Zero network of federal assistance programs. Bolsa Família provides financial aid to poor Brazilian families; if they have children, families must ensure that the infants attend school and are vaccinated...
and Fome Zero
Fome Zero
Fome Zero is a Brazilian government program introduced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2003, with the objective to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty in Brazil.-Contents of the program:...
, for families deemed to be in need of assistance.
Crime in Brazil
Brazil has serious problems with crime. With roughly 23.8 homicides per 100,000 residents, muggings, robberies, kidnappingKidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
s and gang violence are common. Police brutality
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
and corruption are widespread. In response, the Brazilian government established the National Public Security Force
National Public Security Force
The National Public Security Force , created in 2004, is a joint cooperation of various Brazilian Public Safety forces, co-ordinated by the National Secretariat of Public Safety , of the Ministry of Justice...
(FNSP) in June 2004 by the Ministry of Justice, to act in situations of emergency, in times of crisis.
Education
Public education
State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...
in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
is free at all levels. Primary education is compulsory as per the article 208 of the Brazilian Constitution.
Most Primary schools are constitutionally maintained either by municipalities or the states. Both entities are obliged to apply at least 25% of their budgets in education. Since economic disparities exist between states, richer states and cities have more money to deliver quality education, whereas in the poorer cities and States the education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
will be generally of lower standards.
School non-attendance by absence and malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
is one of the biggest educational problems in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. Work under the age of 16 is forbidden by law, however Brazil has many cases of child labor. Children from large poor families start working from the age of 10 in order to help their parents, despite the law of compulsory education between the ages of 10 and 14. Other reasons for school non-attendance are the lack of sufficient school places and the high examination failure rate. Malnutrition also materially affects the intellectual development of children, giving them little chance of adapting to an educational environment.
The standards of primary and secondary public education have been falling over the past decades. Since the country invested little in education, public education's standards dropped and the middle class moved their children to private schools. Nowadays, practically all the middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
sends their children to private schools. Costs may vary from as little as R$ 600 (US$ 240) p.a. in smaller cities to R$ 30,000 (US$ 17,000) p.a. in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
or Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
.
The situation has been improving over the past few years thanks to two official projects: Bolsa Escola, by which parents who keep their children in school and with good health receive a small allowance, and FUNDEF, by which municipalities receive federal funds in accordance to the number of children enrolled. Bolsa Escola was a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that offered mothers in poor households a monthly stipend if their children ages 6 to 15 attended school on a
regular basis. The program was implemented across all of Brazil between the years 2001
and 2003, until it was folded into the broader Bolsa Família
Bolsa Família
Bolsa Família is a social welfare program of the Brazilian government, part of the Fome Zero network of federal assistance programs. Bolsa Família provides financial aid to poor Brazilian families; if they have children, families must ensure that the infants attend school and are vaccinated...
program.
Brazil is participating of the One Laptop Per Child project, aiming at providing low cost laptops to poor children in developing countries, but the program is moving slowly.
Infant mortality
Table 1. Infant Mortality Rates by Regions of Brazil(per 1,000 live births)
| Regions | 1970 | 1980 | 1991 | 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North | 180.07 | 135.12 | 48.93 | 41.14 |
| Northeast | 111.71 | 71.01 | 74.35 | 64.25 |
| Southeast | 97.34 | 61.08 | 34.42 | 27.46 |
| South | 80.95 | 51.69 | 28.93 | 23.59 |
| Center West | 92.22 | 59.59 | 38.60 | 31.00 |
| Brazil | 123.55 | 85.30 | 49.45 | 34.08 |
Source: Fundação IBGE, Census of Population, 1991 and
2000.
See also
- May 2006 São Paulo violence
- July 2006 São Paulo violenceJuly 2006 São Paulo violenceThe July 2006 São Paulo violence happened on 12 July 2006. Various buses, banks and police stations were shot and 5 people died. It is believed that the First Command of the Capital is behind the attacks.- See also :*May 2006 São Paulo violence...
- Social apartheid in BrazilSocial apartheid in BrazilThe term social apartheid has been used to describe various aspects of economic inequality in Brazil, drawing a parallel with the separation of whites and blacks in South African society under the apartheid regime.-Origins:...