“Bolsa Família” program improves education and health care indicators

Criado em 31/10/13 18h10 e atualizado em 01/11/13 16h33
Por Thais Leitão Fonte:Agência Brasil

Brasília – Ten years after the Bolsa Família program was launched, in 2003, studies show that the initiative has improved health care indicators and contributed to regional development and the empowerment of women. This was announced on Wednesday (October 30), by Brazil’s minister of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger, Tereza Campello.

During a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the program, she stressed that the initiative was key to rectifying inequalities in the country’s education system, as seen in the increased number of 15-year-olds among the poorest 20% in their appropriate school year. According to the minister, the gap between this group and the rest of the population decreased 37% in the period. School attendance is one of the requirements families must fulfill in order to be included in the program.

Minister Tereza Campello went on to state that 15 million students are reached by Bolsa Família, and children’s attendance is larger in every school year. Also, the passing rate of students benefited by Bolsa Família has already reached the country’s average. In fact, among High School students, it has surpassed the average, and, in the Northeast, the passing rate of Bolsa Família recipients is above the national average.

Campello stressed that the program ensured children’s school attendance, raised passing rates and improved the entire education system, redressing inequalities in the performance of students. “For the first time, we have among the poorest ones a social indicator above the national average,” she added.

As regards health care, she pointed out that the number of pregnant women in the program who undergo prenatal tests is 50% higher than non-recipients, which contributed to the 14% fall in the number of premature births. Also, 99.1% of the children assisted by the initiative are properly vaccinated. Still according to the minister, data reveal that, in municipalities with a large number of Bolsa Família recipients, deaths caused by diarrhea dropped 46%, and those caused by malnutrition decreased 58%.

She also said that the surveys demonstrate that, in the case of children in the Bolsa Família program, positive effects abound. “The mother underwent all prenatal tests and ate properly; the child was born strong, and with the appropriate weight, was vaccinated and assisted continuously, was properly fed, and has become a winner; so the child has overcome an obstacle, and is now in a position where its parents have never been. At the age of 5, the child’s in a condition similar to that of the other children, and ready to go to school.”

Today, the Bolsa Família program benefits 13.8 million families all across the country, according to Campello. “The reduction of extreme poverty in Brazil reached 89% in this decade," she pointed out.

A survey released this month by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (“IPEA”), shows that Bolsa Família also stimulates the country’s economy through the consumption on the part of the poorest segments of the population. It says in this survey that each real invested in the program brings about an increase of R$1.78 in Brazil’s GDP (the total amount of goods and services of a country).

Odete Terezinha Dela Vachio, 45, lives in the town of Guaíba, in Rio Grande do Sul. She is a Bolsa Família recipient, and said that the initiative “helps people become skilled. I have many female friends who have taken this road.” She also said that she used to work in a factory, as a production assistant. Thanks to the courses offered by the government, with her new professional skills, she became a carpenter and an ironworker, and now works at a construction company, with a larger income.

Brasil sem Miséria (translated as Brazil Free of Poverty), an extension of Bolsa Família, was another initiative created by the federal government with the purpose of rescuing from extreme poverty millions of people making less than $31.98 a month.

(with the collaboration of Pedro Peduzzi)

Edited by Carolina Pimentel / Lícia Marques
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira