ARGENTINA:
Poverty Bites Deeper in
the Northeast
By
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, (IPS)
- "It just crushes you:
children here, aged
eight or nine, are
sniffing glue to dull
their hunger," says a
rural medical doctor in
Corrientes, 1,000
kilometres north of the
capital and the province
with the highest
childhood poverty
indicators in Argentina.
Many children and
adolescents place
contact adhesives in
plastic bags and put
them to their faces to
breathe the solvent
vapours released by the
adhesive. Glue is the
cheapest drug on the
market and is not even
illegal, as it is a
common item that can be
purchased in many shops.
National averages show
that poverty in
Argentina has been
declining since 2003,
when a record 54 percent
of the country's 37
million people were
below the poverty line
after the economic and
political collapse of
late 2001.
But national data hide
the situation in
northeastern provinces
like Corrientes, where
poverty levels are much
higher than in the rest
of the country, and
particularly affect
children.
Statistics for late 2006
from the National
Institute of Statistics
and Censuses (INDEC)
showed that 26.9 percent
of the Argentine
population was living in
poverty. But in
Corrientes, that figure
was 46 percent.
Indigence (extreme
poverty) was 8.7 percent
nationally, but 18.1
percent in Corrientes.
Children under 14, who
are more numerous in
low-income families,
suffer from more and
deeper poverty at all
levels. In the country
as a whole, 40.5 percent
of children are poor. In
the northeastern
provinces, the
proportion is 60
percent, and in
Corrientes childhood
poverty reaches 63.4
percent. INDEC uses two
parametres to measure
poverty. It defines as
"indigent" people who
cannot afford a basic
basket of food
representing their
minimum "energy and
protein needs." The
"poor" are those who
cannot afford the
"complete basket" which
in addition to the basic
food basket contains
goods and services such
as clothing, transport,
education and
healthcare.
According to INDEC's
calculations, the basic
food basket costs around
40 dollars a month per
person in the
northeastern region,
while the complete
basket is worth just
over 85 dollars a month.
The cost of the baskets
varies in different
regions of the country.
Indigence affects the
lives of 14.3 percent of
children under 14 in
Argentina overall, but
in Corrientes the
proportion is 31
percent.
"The same picture is
seen over and over again
in every shantytown in
the province," Dr.
Francisco Martinez, who
serves the low-income
neighbourhoods and rural
areas of Corrientes,
told IPS.
"The children are
undernourished,
inadequately fed,
suffering from diarrhoea
and pneumonia. The sad
reality is that they
have been abandoned by
the state and by
society," he said.
Most of the heads of
these households receive
income from a social
programme for the
unemployed, under which
the government gives
them 50 dollars a month.
But the basic food
basket for a family of
four in the northeastern
region costs about 160
dollars. And in
Corrientes, much larger
families are the norm.
Martinez, who works at
the San Luis del Palmar
hospital and also with
Misioneros de la
Esperanza (Missionaries
of Hope), a lay Catholic
group, pointed out that
inadequate nutrition
causes learning
difficulties. When these
children fail in school,
they are doomed to
become "the (socially)
excluded of the future,"
and the vicious circle
of poverty is repeated.
In an interview with IPS,
Martha Pelloni, a nun
who heads the Human
Rights Centre (Casa de
Derechos Humanos) in
Curuzú Cuatiá, a small
town in Corrientes,
explained that the
province not only
suffers from material
poverty but also from "a
lack of human
development" among the
most marginalised
people.
"Many people are
unemployed and are
living on the social
programmes alone, and
this does not provide
them with a decent diet.
But there is also
illiteracy, lack of
education and complete
neglect on the part of
the authorities," she
said.
"It is alarming that
state institutions are
incapable of having an
impact on the quality of
life of the poorest
people. There is only
one social worker at the
Curuzú Cuatiá hospital,
and she doesn't go out
to visit people in the
surrounding
neighbourhoods," Pelloni
said.
Sister Pelloni said that
her organisation has a
team of lawyers,
psychologists and social
workers, but they cannot
respond to all the
needs. "We are not the
government, and neither
do we want just to
provide welfare that
encourages dependency,"
she said.
"The state sends food
aid and social
programmes and the
people survive, but they
are inadequately fed,
lose all their teeth,
attend appalling
hospitals, and even have
to pay a contribution
towards gasoline for the
ambulance. We teach them
to grow vegetables,
because otherwise they
would not eat any fresh
produce," she said.
Among the poorest
families, hunger begins
to make its mark right
from the mothers'
pregnancies, sources
agreed. Many women have
a large number of
children; some have more
than 10. "Poor people
here have a lot of
children and a lot of
dogs," Pelloni said.
Many of the children
suffer from
disabilities. "It is
common for families to
have at least one child
they describe as 'slow,'
'forgetful' or
'innocent,' who are
really disabled due to
lack of a good diet,"
the nun said.
To deal with these
problems, the Regional
Institute of Medicine at
the National University
of the Northeast has
implemented a programme
in Corrientes that may
curb childhood
malnutrition and its
associated illnesses.
The doctor coordinating
the project, Daniel
Merino, told IPS that
the plan is to create a
health profile of
children aged seven
months to 12 years who
live in shantytowns in
the provincial capital,
which will include
information about
malnutrition, dental
diseases, anaemia,
parasites and
tuberculosis.
Then they intend to
identify community
leaders to act as
bridges between the
experts and the target
population, and initiate
an educational dialogue
with the residents in
order to prevent or
detect cases of
malnutrition and its
associated diseases, so
that they can be treated
immediately.
"The crisis situation
experienced by many
residents in
marginalised areas of
the city of Corrientes
is particularly serious
among the child
population," said
Merino. The aim is for
residents themselves,
with the support of
experts, "to be the
agents of their own
solutions." |
