Human development down in Venezuela-- One million households have no capacity to fulfill their fundamental needs. Increased poverty index shows in the streets

“Venezuela’s index dropped essentially due to a reduction in the purchasing power of its currency, as other indicators, specially those related to schooling and mortality rate, were unchanged,” said Emiro Molina, president of the official National Institute of Statistics (INE).

RAQUEL BARREIRO C. EL UNIVERSAL

Year 2002 spoiled the modest progress made by Venezuela as to social indices from 1998, as shown by the official National Institute of Statistics (INE) in its recently disclosed survey, Reporte Social, which included data from the first half of 1997 to the second half of 2002.

According to the document, the human development index in Venezuela dropped from 0.78 in 2001 to 0.69 in 2002, a level similar to that recorded in 1998. The report added that, under the scale of the United Nations Program for Development, in 2001 Venezuela ranked in the medium-high development plateau, while in 2002 the country went down to a medium-middle development grade.

“Venezuela’s index dropped essentially due to a reduction in the purchasing power of its currency, as other indicators, specially those related to schooling and mortality rate, were unchanged,” said Emiro Molina, president of INE.

For the human development index in Venezuela to improve, the administration should make some moves to slow down price increases and to prop up the Venezuelan Bolivar during the rest of the year. In this way, the government may avoid a continuing fall in purchasing power.

Nothing at all When analyzing social indicators in terms of basic needs unfulfilled, the report showed that poverty amounts to 31.2 percent of households in Venezuela, that is to say, 1,777,629 families. For 1997, this index was 28.2 percent.

Extreme poverty adds up to 13 percent of households in Venezuela, as compared to only 9.7 percent in 1997.

According to the figures disclosed by INE, the number of households where children ranging from 7 to 12 years old do not attend school increased from 78,840 families in 1997 to 105,742 families in 2002. The number of families living in critically overcrowded houses jumped from 629,183 in 1997 to 942,043 last year.

In 1997, 222.857 households lived in inadequate houses, but the number grew to 544.816 in 2002. As to the access to basic public services, in 1997 there were 664,485 families with no access to such services, but last year the figure increased to 987,434.

Access to services such as street lighting, water supply through aqueducts, waste disposal services and telephone services deteriorated last year, even though some progress was achieved from 1999 to 2001.

Plummeting revenues The poorest are the least favored in the country’s distribution of wealth -the richest 20 percent of Venezuelans obtained 12.3 times as much revenues as the poorest 20 percent of Venezuelans in 2002. Nevertheless, the middle class has recorded the biggest loss in purchasing power.

In 1997, the richest obtained 53.5 percent of total revenues in the country, as compared to 54.1 percent in 2002. As to the poorest, they amounted to 4.1 percent of revenues in 1997, which slightly increased to 4.4 percent last year.

The poor in Venezuela -excluding those who live in extreme poverty- amounted to 8.2 percent of total revenues in 1997, slumping to 7.9 percent in 2002.

The middle-class received 13.2 percent of revenues in the country in 1997, as compared to 12.6 percent last year.