Via DW Brasil: At the height of the pandemic, civil society is organizing itself against hunger. Excerpt from the Google translation:
"People are to shine, not to starve to death," sings Caetano Veloso in the song Gente. In fact, access to adequate food is a basic, fundamental human right. It is provided for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and is ensured by the Brazilian Constitution.
However, according to the latest data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), last September 10.3 million people did not have regular access to food in the country. That is, they were hungry. And the situation has worsened even more in recent months, experts point out, amid the intensification of the covid-19 pandemic and the context of economic crisis.
For José Graziano da Silva, former director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Brazil is back on the Hunger Map , from where it had officially left in 2014. This means that more than 5% of the population is in a situation of severe food insecurity, without consuming the recommended calories for a healthy and dignified life.
In the midst of the pandemic, sad stories and pleas for help multiply on the streets, in the media and on social networks. In view of this, civil society has been organizing itself in different ways to assist the population. Dozens of food collection campaigns, led by different entities and organizations, are in action.
Aid falls, food prices rise
The suspension of R $ 600 emergency aid, paid by the federal government from April to December 2020, has had enormous effects on the population in a situation of social vulnerability. The Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) projects that in August 2020 - with the assistance - 9.5 million Brazilians (4.5% of the population) lived in extreme poverty. In February 2021, the number increased to 27 million people (12.2% of the population). Living in extreme poverty means surviving on R $ 246 per month (R $ 8.20 per day).
As of April, the emergency aid will be deposited again for four months, but with lower amounts: R $ 150 for families of one person, R $ 250 for families of 2 people or more, or R $ 375 in the case of mothers unmarried.
In addition to the interruption and reduction of aid, data from the IBGE show that the price of food has increased by more than 15% in the 12 months since the beginning of the pandemic. The number is almost triple inflation, which was 5.2% in the same period.
