Coronavirus: 1 in 3 favela residents will have difficulty buying food.
Research showed that 72% of this population has no savings of any kind to cope with the crisis.
Brasil de Fato - One in three favela residents in Brazil will have difficulty buying basic food items, such as groceries. due to the quarantine measures implemented to combat the new coronavirus pandemic.The data comes from the Data Favela Institute, which interviewed 1.142 people in 262 favelas across all regions of the country in March to understand the impact of the pandemic on Brazilian communities.
Research has shown that for 72% of residents, one week at home is enough to prevent them from maintaining their pre-pandemic standard of living, which was already low due to a lack of savings. In this population of 13,6 million people, 7 out of 10 families have already experienced a decrease in income, and 79% have cut expenses since the beginning of the pandemic.
Financial insecurity is also... supported by the working conditions of this populationAlmost half of these workers are self-employed, around 47%, and 8% are informal workers, meaning that more than half do not have the guarantee of labor laws or financial assistance intended for those with formal employment contracts.
Recommendations to public authorities
The Data Favela Institute is a partnership between the Locomotiva Institute and the Central Union of Favelas (CUFA). CUFA is to deliver to the public authorities a list with 14 recommendations for public policies aimed at the favelas to mitigate the effects of the quarantine.
Among the recommendations are the provision of food to families during the months of March, April, May, and June; the establishment of a Minimum Income Program for families registered in the federal government's Single Registry – an instrument that identifies and characterizes low-income families, used as a criterion for inclusion in social programs such as Bolsa Família –; support for water, electricity, and gas companies that exempt families with incomes up to four minimum wages for four months; and specific financial support for the families of children who will be unable to attend daycare.
"This distribution of food, especially to families with children, the elderly, or people at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, is an urgent humanitarian measure: both to maintain food security for children who are not attending school, and to maintain the immune integrity of those most susceptible to the virus," the organization states in the text.