Brazil: Families in extreme poverty in São Paulo grow 10%, says City Hall

The number of families living in extreme poverty in São Paulo City grew by 10.3% between January and July this year, according to data from the city’s Unified Registry (CadÚnico), used to pay for social programs in the city.

According to the Municipal Secretariat for Social Assistance and Development (SMADS), in January, São Paulo had 619,869 families living on a monthly per capita income of up to R$105 (US$20). This number jumped to 684,295 families in July.

In January, g1 had already published a report pointing out that in the 12 months between January 2021 and January 2022, the total number of people living in extreme poverty in the city had jumped from 473,814 to 619,869 families. An increase of more than 30%.

In the comparison between January 2021 and July 2022, the growth of extreme poverty in São Paulo reaches 44%.

Following the example of January, the districts of M’Boi Mirim, Capela do Socorro, and Cidade Ademar – all in the South Zone – are the ones that most present families in a situation of social vulnerability, according to the graph below.

On the other end, the regions with the fewest families in CadÚnico are Santana, in the city’s North Zone (8,815 families), Santo Amaro, South Zone (6,890 families), and Pinheiros, West Zone, with 2,698 families.

The CadÚnico is the gateway to several income transfer programs such as Brazil Aid (Auxílio Brasil), Continuous Cash Benefit (Benefício de Prestação Continuada – BPC), Eventual Benefit (Benefício Eventual), and Minimum Income (Renda Mínima), from the federal government, or People’s Grant (Bolsa do Povo) and Gas Aid (Vale Gás), from the state government, for example.

The SMADS informed that it promotes continuous actions to promote the registration and updating of data of families enrolled in this CadÚnico through vans that provide services in different points of the city.

On average, 55 thousand people are assisted per month by the portfolio staff.

BRAZIL’S SITUATION

A survey by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), released in June this year, showed the highest number of people living in poverty recorded in Brazil.

According to the data, almost 10 million Brazilians will live in poverty from 2019 to 2021. That’s nearly the entire population of Portugal.

FGV Social used data from IBGE to create the poverty map in Brazil. The survey considers the World Bank’s definition of poverty based on family income.

There are almost 63 million people in Brazil who, last year, lived in households where the income per person did not exceed R$497 per month. With this amount, it is impossible to buy a basic food basket in any country’s capital.

“You have the arrival of the pandemic in the country, the fall in occupation, then you have the arrival of inflation, food inflation, inflation of the poor, which somehow corroded.

“If we look at the labor market, there has been a recovery in employment, but income from work has never been as low as it is now because inflation is playing the role of deteriorating people’s income,” explained Marcelo Neri, director of FGV Social, in June.

The survey also drew a portrait of poverty in Brazil by state. The Federal District and 24 of the 26 Brazilian states registered a worsening trend, and in four of them, the number of people living in poverty exceeds half of the population.

Pernambuco, Alagoas, Amazonas, and Maranhão are the states with the highest proportion of people in this condition.

The director of FGV Social says that the country needs emergency measures and permanent public policies to reduce poverty.

“In the short term, you have to transfer income in a very balanced way, focused on the poorest, and in the long term, you have to invest in education, in productive activities so that people can generate their own income,” explained Neri.

THE CANDIDATES’ PROPOSALS

The three best-placed candidates in the dispute for the government of São Paulo put proposals for combating poverty in the state in their government plans.

Haddad presented the Emergency Program to Fight Hunger and Misery, a series of measures to fight hunger, with an emergency fund that foresees the distribution of essential food baskets, milk, and vouchers to buy healthy food integrated with the federal programs of income distribution, besides the expansion of other existing programs.

Rodrigo Garcia proposes to open new food distribution units, fixed and mobile, and the creation of community kitchens based on experimental pilot kitchens already installed in several cities of São Paulo State by the State Secretary of Agriculture and Supply.

And Tarcísio de Freitas promises to expand food security and income transfer projects aligned with the Federal Government projects.

With information from G1