Family Allowance to solve child labour

The Governmental Program Bolsa-Familia - Family Allowance has been extremely successful in removing more than 45 millions of people from poverty. According to the private Centre of Statistics Getulio Vargas Institute - FGV, between 2002 and 2006 the poverty in Brazil was reduced in 27%. This successful program helps to keep millions of children in school and reduces drastically child labour in Brazil. However despite the success there is a lot of criticism around the Family Allowance.


Poor supervision, no incentive to seek for a job for the people enrolled in the program and possible fraud are the main concerns for the critics of the Family Allowance. Is believed that the gigantic dimensions of Brazil make it difficult to properly check on the benefited families and that this is a fertile field for widespread fraud. Also the beneficiaries have no incentive to be retrained and acquire new skills to be able to find a job, or possibly have no reason to work since the government will provide for them no matter what.


These concerns might be rightfully based but does not diminish the importance of this watershed social inclusion program. Even if some individuals enrolled in Family Allowance might be abusing or depending exclusively of this program to survive, there is irrefutable proof that their offspring will have better chances in life than their parents.


Previous generations of under privileged classes had very low expectations in life and even lower chances to go to school and were forced to work at earlier age to help their families. This has contributed to cement the social inequality and increase the socio-economic gap that exists in Brazil. The Gini Index, that measure the distribution of family income, places the South American giant in 10th place behind Haiti and some countries in Africa.


According to statistics, 4.8 million of children between 5 and 17 years old are currently working in order to help to provide for their family. From this total 1.2 million are aged between 5 and 13 years old. Family Allowance was initially created as School Allowance assistance exclusively intended to prevent children to enter the workforce at such an early age.


In 1994 a local government, in south of Brazil, created the program School Allowance with the intension of keeping children in school. Due to its popularity, the same program was introduced the following year in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, and in 2001 President Fernando Henrique Cardoso went national with the School Allowance initiative. Since then the program has been reshaped and expanded by his successor, Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva, to accommodate more people and this eventually led to an interesting development as the Family Allowance program is now a taboo among Brazilian politicians.


In the recent presidential race the opposition candidates did not criticized the program and its flaws, but instead they only praised and promised to expand it to include more families. Apparently Family Allowance has become something sacred and untouchable that cannot be questioned or criticized by any politician with presidential aspirations in Brazil.


There are negative and positives consequences of this social program. One can argue that while the Family Allowance has little effect in the great centres such as Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro or Brasilia due to the high cost of living, in the countryside and especially in poor regions as North and Northeast of the country this financial assistance is absolutely vital to families. In these regions the wave of cash has also benefited the economy in small towns and allowed families to have access, for the first time in their life, to kitchen appliances and electronic goods such as TVs and DVD players and even beds.


On the positive side statistics show that homes benefited by the Family Allowance have lower figures of broken marriages with a reduction between 2% and 11% of the mothers being left alone with their children. Other statistics link children rose by a single parent (usually the mother) with criminality in Brazil and United States, however is still early to tell if the Family Allowance will contribute to reduce criminality. It seems to be a sensible step on the right direction though.


The program has enormous potential to empower the most vulnerable and help to raise these families from poverty, but lacks tools to help the benefited to achieve financial independence from the government. This creates an environment that incentivize people to remain chronically unemployed and one might argue that this make them cast their ballot in favour of the Labour Party coalition. Time will tell which families will be the most benefited from it, the poor or the politicians.

The Future Enemies of Society

Brazil has made headlines worldwide as the B in BRIC. This South American sleeping giant is awake and its booming economy is removing millions from poverty. However, despite the great success of Brazil’s growing economy, its future might be treated by an escalation of urban violence that claims 43.3% of all deaths among children annually.

A recent survey shows that 79% of the Brazilian population is afraid of being murdered. This fear, that is constant in all regions of Brazil, is reflected on the media coverage. The cycle of violence that increases every day, particularly among the youth, is splashed constantly on the Radio, TV, printed and online publications. The statistics back up this fear as the trends show that since the 80’s the violence against children and teenagers, aged 1 to 19 years old, increased dramatically, from 6.7% in 1980 to 25% in 2010. This means that, while in 1980 3.1 children were killed for every 100 thousand, in 2010 this number soared to 13.8 in 2010 which represents an increase of 346% in the last three decades According to a study made by the World Health Organization, these alarming figures put Brazil in fourth place in the list of the most violent countries against children, only behind El Salvador, Guatemala and Iraq.

In reaction to this surge in criminality the Brazilian Government tightened the security in the biggest cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which helped to decrease drastically the violence in such places but also collaborated to push the violence to the countryside or other great centers. In consequence, states such as Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte had the murder rate among the children and teenagers increased by 7 fold and 5 fold, respectively.

While Brazil made progress in decreasing the mortality rate for children under 5 y-o due to improvements in health, sanitation and social benefits, the same cannot be said to the external factors such as violent crimes that claim fatalities among teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19 y-o. Is also interesting to mention that boys are the most affected as girls make only 10% of the fatal victims.

The most surprising conclusion we can draw from these figures is that Brazil lives an epidemic of indifference and almost complicity by a huge segment of the society and also by the State. Instead of raising awareness for this calamity, the Brazilian society and State believe that the sad fate of the youth is already decided and nothing can be done to change it.

In order to understand the acceptance by the Brazilian society for this cold rationalization, is important to note that the public opinion, in its majority, blames the victims of the violent crimes for their own misfortune. If a teenaged criminal is killed by the police or by another delinquent this is seen as a disciplinary action. This nearly vigilante approach is well received by the large segments of population simply because the security policies are unable to shift the violent crime waves that engulfed Brazil in recent decades.

It seems the economic success experienced in Brazil recently will not contribute, in short term, to the decline in the rate of violence that claims so many lives among the youth. Profound changes in Law, security policies and society will play a big role in reversing these deadly numbers.

Profane journey to divine redemption

The Carnaval is by far the most popular festive season in Brazil. Celebrated in February, right in the middle of the summer, this event marks the end of holidays and the back-to-the-normal day life. During this brief 5 days all the excess is allowed. Music, dance and nearly everything else is permitted or tolerated. The Carnaval is a massive social pressure valve that releases the tension accumulated during the whole year between the classes.

The Brazilian Carnaval has its roots in Europe, on the Portuguese Entrudo celebrations back in the 13th century. This very popular party took place before the Christian Lent to allow everybody to enjoy themselves before the 40 days period that preceded Easter. Fast forwarding a few centuries, we will see the same Entrudo has found a place in the Brazilian hearts and minds. The Catholic Church tried unsuccessfully to dismiss or empty the event, but its best efforts allied with the local elite managed only to banish the old celebration, making room for the Carnaval we all know today. The word Carnaval literally means “to remove the flesh” in a reference to the Christian tradition to abstain from the consumption of meat and poultry prior to the Easter.

Initially an espontaneos popular manifestation, this celebration was adopted during the 50s by the Brazilian Government for political gain. Ever since the Carnaval became more organized and the State started to use censorship against samba song writers that use their lyrics to oppose the Government.

Today the Carnaval is also a big business. The top 13 Samba Schools in Rio de Janeiro spent around €2 millions each, in 2012, to produce their presentations that lasted little over one hour. Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Recife and Sao Paulo holds the biggests Carnaval celebrations in the country and expect a turnover of €1 Billion this year. Last year the local economy in Rio de Janeiro benefited in nearly €400 Million.

Big numbers apart, the Carnaval is a time of the year when the profane has its reign and where everybody dresses up as a character and enjoy themselves before the time to repent. Its an international party that borrows from France’s hegemonic Carnaval, from Portugal’s theatrical Carnaval and percussion and also the Pierrot, Columbine and Harlequin characters from the Italian Commedia Dell’Arte. It is, in essence, a massive popular festive season which welcomes everybody, despite their place in society, to join the celebration of physical life pleasures at its full. Time to forget about the dull everyday routine, dress up, dance and celebrate life like there is no tomorrow. All this conveniently placed just before the divine Lent, just in time to seek enlightenment to the soul.