The poverty indicator in Argentina would have arrived in the first quarter of 2024 55.5% of the population and destitution went from 9.6% to 17.5% in the same period, according to estimates by the Argentine Social Debt Observatory of the Argentine Catholic University (ODSA-UCA). According to that same survey, almost 25 million people (24.9 million, residents in urban areas of the country) would have been in poverty below the total basic basket (CBT).
These increases are largely attributed to the impact of inflation in recent months and the increase mainly in the food sector that affected the lowest strata of society. The same study assures that some 7.8 million people are in a state of extreme poverty or destitution, below the basic food basket (CBA). In the third quarter of 2023 the poverty indicator was 44.7%. The ODSA data for the first quarter of this year is obtained through micro simulations.
“Total food insecurity for urban areas surveyed by the ODSA-UCA survey, It reaches 24.7% of people, 20.8% of households and 32.2% of children and adolescents. On the other hand, 10.9% of people, 8.8% of households and 13.9% of children and adolescents (NNyA) are in an even more serious situation, with severe food insecurity. . When considering the AMBA, the total food insecurity values are located at 26.4% of people, 21.8% of households and 35% of children and adolescents. When considering severe food insecurity, they are located at 9.9%, 12.7% and 16.5%, respectively,” states the report titled “Structural social debts in Argentine society.”
The 20.6% of households that suffer from total food insufficiency are around 3.7 million homes that house around 11 million inhabitants.
The Observatory indicates that “the high levels of food deprivation suffered by the population try to be compensated with actions carried out at different levels of the State. Considering children and adolescents, 42.6% of them reside in households that receive the AUH+Food Card, 50% attend school cafeterias, 36.7% receive boxes or bags of food from cafeterias and 11.1% receive boxes or bags of food from non-school cafeterias; adding many homes to more than one benefit.” One of the measures that Javier Milei’s government adopted in his administration was to reinforce the amount of the AUH.
In the Argentine National Plan against Hunger, which aims to guarantee the food security and sovereignty of the population in the context of National Food Emergency, extended until December 2025, for June the libertarian administration ordered an increase of 9.37%. Thus, a family with one child will receive $48,125 per month; one with two children: $75,468 and one with three children or more, $99,531.
The ODSA warns that “the infant mortality rate, for those under 1 year of age and those under 5 years of age, presents a general improvement over time, from 2005 to 2022, but greater heterogeneity between the situation of each of our provinces. In general, when considering the data by province, it is observed that high levels of infant mortality tend to correlate with high levels of monetary indigence.”
The survey also mentions the state of education and work in Argentina. The fact stands out that 23% of girls and boys between 3 and 5 years old do not attend formal educational establishments, 0.4% of those between 6 and 12 years old do not go to primary school, 9.1% attend primary school when they are over-age and 35.3% of young people between 18 and 29 years old did not finish high school. “These indicators express adverse values despite the fact that the general system of public management (80.7% of students under 18 years of age) is strengthened by the action of private management (12.6% in private secular and 6.8% in religious establishments)”, he emphasizes.
Regarding the labor scenario, he says that “the inequalities of the productive structure and the low generation of employment and quality employment, 32.5% of employed people are workers who live in households in poverty30.9% of employed people work in the social economy and, when considering the economically active population, 26.5% have precarious employment and 24.3% have unstable underemployment.
Another concern that is reflected is the sale and trafficking of drugs in the most vulnerable layers of the population of our country.
According to the UCA “it has become a scourge that increases with the passage of time. The percentage of household representatives who expressed that drugs are sold near their home increased from 22.8% in 2021, to 26.5% in 2022 and to 31.3% in 2023..
In 2023, only 29.2% of household representatives in urban neighborhoods reported drug sales, when 62% of those in emergency settlements and 70.5% of residents in housing complexes did. monobloc social structures, the latter constituting structures with multiple adverse particularities and objects of special attention.”
