THE poverty in Brazilhas structural origin, derived from a colonization process guided by the slave society. Income transfer programs were essential for reducing the contingent of poverty in Brazil, although the national and international economic situation may be responsible for the expansion of the poor population in the country. O deepening of social differences and the poor distribution of income, especially after the 2014 crisis, the number of individuals living below the poverty line, which corresponds to R$ 154 per month, has increased.
When it comes to households, Brazilian poverty is essentially urban. Analyzing the national territory as a whole, the population with the lowest income in the country is concentrated in the Northeast region. The consequences of poverty include increased prejudice towards the marginalized population, hunger and rising rates of violence.
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What is poverty?
Poverty is defined as the lack of access to essential services
(basic sanitation, health, education, electricity, among others), consumer goods, especially food, and assets materials necessary for the maintenance of life in basic conditions. Access restriction, in turn, is linked to individual or family income (of a household). However, the definition of poverty is widely discussed in academia and can acquire several aspects and characteristics from different international organizations, institutions or authors consulted.O world Bankuses a set of monetary values for the identification of individuals living in poverty or extreme poverty. These values are expressed in dollars and readjusted from time to time in accordance with the international economic situation and the purchasing power registered in the poorest countries in the world.
The indicator is known as poverty line. It is currently considered extremely poor the individual who lives on less than US$1.90 a day or R$10.80. The institution also delimits two other values below which an individual can be considered as being in a situation of poverty, being US$ 3.20 (R$ 18.19) per day and US$ 5.50 (R$ 31.26) per morning.
THEUnited Nations Organization (UN) uses parameters similar to those of the World Bank, as the value of the poverty line, for the definition of this condition. However, he adds that not only the income per capiOK daily life and access to basic services are determinants of poverty, but also hunger, malnutrition, discrimination and social exclusion. In other words, the way the individual is inserted in society is a condition of poverty.
Still, poverty can be defined as being absolute or relative. THE absolute poverty is defined by scarcity of resources and calculated from objective parameters such as the poverty line. THE relative poverty, on the other hand, is related to the comparative between individuals, families or groups (which includes countries), directly linked to the way in which the distribution of income in the society.
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causes of poverty
Poverty can have different causes, depending on the social group or country analyzed. of structural or conjunctural origin. In the case of Brazil, the primary cause of poverty is structural and is amplified through the poor distribution of income.
THEhistory of Brazil is marked by the colonial process, whose society was composed of classes extremely unequal, being based on slave labor. A small portion of the population could be considered rich, and the Brazilian society of the period was mostly made up of poor and miserable people.
THE abolition of slavery deepened social inequalities in the newly formed country, leaving the freedmen to their own devices, without any kind of state support. Along with this, we have that Brazil has always been a country dependent on the outside world and started its modernization process late, following the pattern of underdeveloped countries. During this process, a significant portion of the population was not included, and social and income inequality worsened over time..
THE urbanization is also one of the causes of poverty in Brazil. Derived in part from rural exodus, the growth of the Brazilian urban population happens together with the industrialization and the field modernization process, which gained strength in the 1970s and 1980s. Part of the migrants, due to their low professional qualification, ends up working in underemployment or expanding the mass of unemployed. Some of them can still resort to housing on the outskirts of cities, where costs are lower, although the supply of essential urban services may also be reduced. According to the geographer Milton Santos, the modernization of urban centers can also lead to greater impoverishment of its population, which increases the number of marginalized people.
The national and global economic situation may also increase the number of people living below the poverty line. Examples are the economic crises of the 1980s in Brazil and the global crisis of 2008. Other conjunctural factors, such as those associated with public health, can increase poverty in a country, such as pandemic of covid-19, which started in March 2020.
Due to the need for social isolation, recommended by World Health Organization (WHO), many people found themselves unemployed or with their wages reduced. Even with financial aid programs in several countries, including Brazil, the projection of the World Bank is that around 100 million people will be placed in extreme poverty in the world by the end of 2020.
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Poverty Index in Brazil
Poverty rates registered in Brazil have fallen significantly since at least the 1970s. The main sources for obtaining data are the annual demographic censuses and the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), both carried out by the IBGE.
Over a period of 30 years (from 1970 to the 2000s), the poverty rate in Brazil fell from 68.3% to 24.7% of the population. The strongest fall, however, took place from the 2000s onwards, more specifically from 2003 onwards. Among the reasons are the social inclusion and income transfer programs that began in the late 1990s and were unified in 2003 with the creation of Bolsa Família.
The index that was 24.6% in the year 2003 dropped to 8.8% 10 years later. As a result of the global economic crisis that began in 2008, affecting Brazil a few years later, data from Pnad gathered by Atlas Brasil show that the percentage of poor population has increased again, reaching 11.65% in 2017.
The population living on less than US$ 5.50 a day in 2018, according to the IBGE, was just over a quarter of Brazil's total population, or 52.5 million.This value rose in 2019 due to the expansion of social inequality and the fall in the income of the poorest 40%.
the pandemic of coronavirus raised concerns about the deepening of inequalities and the poor distribution of income in the country. A World Bank estimate placed Brazil among the countries whose population will be most affected by the effects of covid-19, and there are studies that account for up to 14 million Brazilians starting to live in conditions of poverty.
Poverty Line in Brazil
The poverty line adopted to identify the population in poverty and extreme poverty in Brazil is the one used by the World Bank. In current values, In Brazil, people who live on less than R$ 457 a month are considered poor. Extreme poverty, in turn, is below the amount of R$154 per month.
Extreme poverty in Brazil
Extreme poverty affected 12.48% of the Brazilian population in the early 2000s, according to the IBGE census. This value dropped to 6.62% in the last edition of the census, carried out in 2010. A few years later, the external and internal economic situation in Brazil transformed the situation of extreme poverty in the country.
In 2018, there was the record of the largest number of Brazilians living below the poverty line in a period of 7 years, with 13.5 million people or 6.5% of the Brazilian population. That number increased the following year, and the country had 6.7% of its population living on less than $1.90 a day, which is equivalent to 13.8 million people. O scenario in 2020 changes with the covid-19 pandemic, there is a need for an urgent measure of income transfer to help the most vulnerable population, which was translated into Emergency Assistance.
With values between R$ 600 and R$ 1,200 (single mothers), the temporary program was responsible for the drop in the numbers of extreme poverty in the country. The drop was almost 2 million people: from 8.8 million living in extreme poverty in May 2020, the figure went to 6.9 million the following month. Despite this, a portion of the population called “invisibles” was left without receiving financial assistance. They are so called because they are not registered in the federal government's bases in transfer programs, such as the Cadastro Único. Furthermore, the reduction of aid amounts half in the next few months and the enactment of a new cash transfer program from 2021 onwards, they can again change the situation of the most vulnerable.
Brazil's poorest states and cities
The poorest states in Brazil are concentrated in the North and Northeast regions of the country, according to the information of the Atlas of Human Development in Brazil, which gathers data from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD). O Maranhão is the state that concentrates the higher percentage of people living in poverty, ttotaling 29.25%, while the extremely poor population is 15.62%. Second is the Acre with 27.11% of the poor population, followed by alagoas, with 25.25%.
In contrast, the state with the lowest concentration of poverty is Santa Catarina, in the southern region, with less than 3% of its population living on less than the subsistence minimum. Soon after, the states of Sao Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, with rates of, respectively, 4.90% and 4.95%.
The table below brings the list of 10 Brazilian municipalities with lower average monthly income per capita, according to the Atlas Brasil ranking data.
County |
General position in Brazil |
|
1º |
Wells (PB) |
220º |
2º |
Script (AL) |
220º |
3º |
Large Water Eye (AL) |
219º |
4º |
Mataraca (PB) |
218º |
5º |
Joaquim Nabuco (PB) |
217º |
6º |
Olivença (AL) |
216º |
7º |
Sand Marsh (MA) |
216º |
8º |
Paulo Ramos (MA) |
216º |
9º |
Juripiranga (PB) |
216º |
10º |
Potion (PE) |
216º |
The poorest municipalities in Brazil are located in the region North East of the country.
Also access: What are the effects of field modernization?
Consequences of poverty in Brazil
Poverty can have consequences both for individuals and families who experience it and for space on different scales. The consequences of this serious social problem are:
hunger;
higher incidence of illnesses due so much to the lack of sanitation regarding the restricted access to medications;
growth in the number of people homeless or living in shelters;
increased discrimination against people in these conditions;
increased violence;
growth in the number of homes in risky areas;
higher unemployment rates;
low life expectancy.
By Paloma Guitarrara
Geography teacher
