State distanced itself from the poorest, says Bolsa Família founder

The income transfer is necessary and helps to fight poverty, but it does not solve the problem alone in Brazil, evaluated this Wednesday (28) economist and professor Ricardo Paes de Barros, one of the creators of the Bolsa Família program.

In the view of the specialist in social policies, the country also needs to advance in measures of productive inclusion of the needy population, if it wants to overcome the situation of difficulties intensified by the pandemic.

“There are two social rights that are very important: the social right to a minimum income and the social right to work,” he said.

“We are adopting a strategy that, to a certain extent, does not have much future, does not have much dynamism, which is to try to solve the problem purely with an income transfer”, he added.

The economist’s speech took place at an online event in the morning. The meeting marked the presentation of a panel of social and economic indicators launched by the Movimento Brasil sem Povereza and Oppen Social.

Under the guidance of Paes de Barros, the tool gathers statistics that seek to assess poverty in a multidimensional way, and not just in monetary terms.

“We distanced ourselves from the poor. We never had a Single Registry that was so outdated. We never gave so little importance to the approach, to the conversation with poor families. The State distanced itself from the poor population. We know much less today what really afflicts the poor at an individual level”, he mentioned.

“The survival strategy of each poor person has been affected in a different way. We need to identify these people, reach out, talk, support them with resolute services and promote the overcoming of these people’s poverty.”

On the eve of the elections, the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL) decided to expand the coverage and values ​​of Auxílio Brasil, which replaced Bolsa Família, one of the hallmarks of PT administrations.

“As much as we transfer income, which is a very good thing, it will not solve the problem of the difficulty of entering the job market. We need powerful programs for productive insertion, nothing too new for Brazil”, pointed out Paes. from Barros.

The expansion of Auxílio Brasil came in a context of worsening social indicators with the pandemic, although government officials, including Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy), have already contested research that pointed to an increase in hunger.

“The big problem in Brazil is that the vast majority of our poor, who earned little, but worked a lot, are currently unable to work. They are unable to enter the new Brazilian economy,” said Paes de Barros.

For the specialist, the “wagon” of the needy population is disconnecting from the “locomotive” of the national economy, which shows signs of heating. This, he indicated, brings the risk of growth of activity without fighting inequalities.

“We have the locomotive of the Brazilian economy starting to take off or moving forward with good prospects. But the little wagon where the poor are [está] completely disconnected from this locomotive. We are heading towards unshared prosperity.”