Social Issues In Brazil
Brazil’s economy is the ninth largest in the world and the largest in Latin America. The vast country has great amounts of cultural, ecological, and social diversity, and has many extremes from one region to another. While modern industry and commerce have flourished in Brazil, there is also a tremendous amount of inequality and it is one of the country’s most serious challenges. There are rich natural resources and rapid economic development, but despite the overall size of Brazil’s economy, the nation still has major problems with hunger, poverty, disease and the inadequacy of many public services.
Between the city and the countryside there are huge gaps in the society. These gaps also exist between regions and between social classes. Brazil has the world’s most substantial difference between incomes of the rich and poor. Brazil’s income equality is one of the highest in the world, ranking 56.7 in the Gini coefficient index. The richest ten percent of Brazilians receive fifty percent of the nation’s income and the poorest ten percent receive less than on percent of the nation’s income. Basic citizen rights are also very scarce in Brazil. Education, health and safety are far from adequate in many areas. Several government organizations have been tackling these issues and the country is slowly improving in terms of social related figures. In recent years there has also been more pressure from the Brazilian society to put more importance on these social issues.
Poverty is probably one of the most prominent Brazilian social issues as it is very visually represented by the country’s many slums in metropolitan areas and remote upcountry regions. These slums suffer from economic underdevelopment and below-par standards of living. There’s been an attempt to mitigate these problems by implementing hunger-eradication programs and anti-poverty programs that gives money directly to impoverished families. This poverty is due largely in part to the huge levels in economic inequality in Brazil.
Brazil has also had serious problems with crime, particularly in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Homicides, muggings, kidnappings, robberies, and gang violence are among the most common crime issues. There is also widespread police brutality and corruption. The newly established National Public Security Force acts in situations of emergency and crisis.
Public education in Brazil is free at very level and primary education (elementary school) is compulsory dues to an article of the Brazilian Constitution. However, one of the biggest problems in Brazil is absence from schools and malnutrition. Though work under the age of sixteen is illegal in Brazil, there are still many cases of child labor. Many children from lower-class families will begin working at age ten to help support their families, even though they are mandated to be in school until the age of fourteen. Also, because the country has invested very little in public education, the standards of both primary and secondary education have fallen in recent years. Brazil is participating in the One Laptop Per Child program which seeks to bring inexpensive laptops to low income children, but progress with the program is slow.