Brasília, 7/15/2004 (Agência Brasil) - On one side of the equation, fair-skinned young people, fashionably dressed, who are, well, very well: well-adjusted, wellborn, well-bred, well-conditioned and well-educated. And poised to do very well in life: good jobs, good salaries and all the worker benefits that are their due.
On the other side, dark-skinned young people, doing badly. Badly dressed, badly educated and badly, if at all, employed - probably in some makeshift job with no benefits at all. At most, a subsistence salary.
The disparities between the two sides of the Brazilian social equation is the main reason for so much of the youth violence that occurs in Brazil, says a study by the Applied Economic Research Institute (Ipea).
"Social inequality is the major cause of youth violence. It is the context of that violence, the setting where these youths between the ages of 15 and 24 live out their lives in the midst of the problem," says Luseni Aquino, who wrote the study together with Enid Rocha.
One of the factors in the equation of social inequality is the extreme poverty that 4.2 million (12.2%)of these 34 million young Brazilians live in. They come from families with a monthly income of slightly more than US$22 (one-fourth of Brazil's minimum wage). The majority of them, 67%, have not concluded elementary school (they are functionally illiterate), and over 30% have no employment and do not go to school.
Tragically, the numbers get even worse as one's skin gets darker. The Ipea study found that among Negroes, the illiteracy rate rose to 73%, and 71% of them have no employment and do not go to school.
The point the study makes is that it is not the poverty, but the social inequalities that drive youth violence."Violence mostly affects the poor, so the usual simplistic conclusion is that poverty causes violence. But that is not true," says Rocha. "The fact that someone is poor does not mean he or she will be violent. We have no lack of cases of violence by middle class youths."
The researchers say that one way to reduce inequalities is to introduce mechanisms that increase the income of the extremely poor. "The solution is to promote social inclusion through education and jobs. The pathway to social ascension goes through schooling and work," explains Rocha.
One income increasing mechanism the government has implemented is the Family Voucher program which gives families that earn up to US$33 (R$100) per month a supplemental income. At the moment, the program gives benefits to 3.9 million families.
Repórter:Irene Lôbo
(Translator: Allen Bennett)
