Carolina Pimentel
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Today (19), which is Indian Day in Brazil, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva presented an assessment of what the government has done for the Indians. In his view, Indians have been treated as Brazilian citizens, with a right to land, education, health, and electricity.

The president participated in the inauguration of the Light for All program on the Guarita Indian reservation in the muncipality of Tenente Portela, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Electricity will give the reservation's 7,500 Kaingang and Guarani Indians the chance the improve their production of corn, beans, tobacco, soybeans, vegetables, and wheat. They intend to buy refrigerators to conserve and sell milk and dairy products. The total investment on the electrification project amounted to US$ 1.17 million.

In his speech the president referred to what the government has done in the past three years for the indigenous community, such as a 40% increase in the number of openings for Indians in schools and a US$ 9.3 million investment last year on basic sanitation projects in 297 villages. According to Lula, 19 thousand Indian families receive the Family Grant, which is the federal government's foremost income transfer program.

Translation: David Silberstein