(Chile has a total population of about 17,900,000)

• The official poverty statistics are excessively optimistic and do not match what the people perceive. Simply put, there are many more impoverished people than the official statistics show because the yardstick that poverty has been measured by, the so called “poverty line” is obsolete. – Felipe Larraín, Minister of Finance

Structural Inequality

The top earning fifth of the country makes over 51.03% of the total country’s income, while the bottom fifth share only 5.38%. - Survey of family budgets (EPF) conducted by the National Institute of statistics (INE), 2008

According to the OCDE, Chile has a Gini coefficient – which measures inequality- of 0.50 – placing Chile at the same level as Brazil, México, and Zambia.

The independent income of the top earning 10% of homes in Chile is 46 times larger than the independent income of the 10% lowest earning homes.

Source: Casen 2009 (National Social-Economic Characteristics Survey) Education

In 4th grade year end math exams: 37% of 4th grade students didn’t pass at 2nd grade level. 34% barely passed 2nd and 3rd grade levels 29% passed at their expected grade level. Only 3% of students from the low socioeconomic group passed at an acceptable grade level for their class, meaning 97% of poor students do not achieve expected grade levels. 49% of students from the top socioeconomic group passed. -Results of the SIMCE 2009 (Ministry of Education’s Learning Evaluation System) 62% of 8th grade students don’t know 6th grade student material, meaning most of them are over 2 grades behind. • Almost 17% of teachers in the municipal (public) school system suffered from some kind of mental disorder during the last year. • According to a survey taken by nearly 189 high school teachers from 116 schools, 30.1% of those surveyed described their mental health over the last 12 months as “so-so” or “bad”. • 40% of teachers quit teaching at around their fifth year at the job because of the low salaries.

(Source: Study by Universidad de Chile)

• The difference in admission to tertiary education in Chile shows staggering differences between rich and poor. Only 18% of the lowest income quintile (poorest 1/5 of the population) enters university, in comparison with 75% of the highest income quintile. • On one hand, the supports for low income youth to have benefits for their studies, such as scholarships, student loans, etc, have been progressively incrementing. This means that over 540,000 young people gain entrance to higher education. However, statistics show that 53.7% drop out (Unesco 2005), a number largely made up of young people from the most vulnerable sectors. There are multiple causes for this. Prominent among them is the immediate necessity to work, the educational deficit they already carried upon arrival, and underdeveloped social skills, which do not only affect their continuance in higher education, but influence their future insertion into the labor market.

- http://www.amnistia.cl/web/ent%C3%A9rate/casen-2009-y-educaci%C3%B3n-nuevos-desaf%C3%ADos University graduates in Chile earn an average salary 5.5 times higher than those who haven’t completed high school. This means that the poor, who received an inferior quality education are usually unable to enter state universities. Coupled with the lack of income to pay for private universities, the poor are left with no options but the lowest paying jobs, which means their children also attend school in the public system. This becomes a vicious cycle where an inferior- quality public education system perpetuates the same structural inequality generation after generation.

This graph shows the average income based on education levels, starting from those who finish primary school, through university graduates.

Inequality in Health

The infant mortality rate, per 10,000, in Vitacura, is quite low, around 2.62. In the same city of Santiago, in the district of Independencia, it is 7 times higher at 14.59 . In rural areas, there is an even wider breach, for example, in Puerto Saavedra the infant mortality rate is 42.25 , nearly 20 times higher. There is also a significant difference in infant mortality rate depending on the number of school years the mother graduated from. More education minimizes the mortality rate, particularly in deaths from trauma and respiratory diseases. The risk of death from occupational hazards according to profession is also unequal. Manual laborers and drivers’ death rate (450 per 100,000) is 5 times higher than professionals, technicians and administration (90 per 100,000).

Inequality exists in the majority of health care services. Other than a few prevention programs run by the public system and emergencies, as you increase income, you increase medical services. This is especially true in the areas of dental care, (which is more expensive), and in available hours with specialists in the private sector, since most doctors who specialize serve the minority of the population who have a higher income. The public system attends 70% of the population with half the financing per capita, and the vast majority of that 70% is poor, elderly, and children with high mortality rates. While in the private sector, with double the finance per capita, serves a mainly young group, with a low mortality rate and the highest incomes in the country.

http://pdf.rincondelvago.com/atencion-medica-e-inequidad-en-chile.html Former President Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006 term), in a gathering with health workers at the Hospital Barros Luco pointed out:

.... “ we do not have equality in health care, despite the advances of the last few years. We have one health care for the rich, and another for the poor. While in well-off districts life expectancy reaches 80 years old, infant mortality is close to 3 per 1000 live births, and there is easy access to high quality health care, in other areas of the country people have great difficulty getting access to any medical attention. In those areas life expectancy is 20 years lower and health indicators are similar to many third world countries. It is ethically unacceptable that many Chileans should live 20 fewer years just because of their economic situation and low education levels. Or, that they should have an infant mortality rate 10 times that of other Chileans”…. In Chile there are over 500 “campamentos” in which tens of thousands of families live.

A “campamento” is defined as a group of at least 8 families living in squatters camps or “irregular” slums which lacks access to last one basic service (electricity, clean water, plumbing). What to most people are indispensible daily resources is drastically limited for these groups. They also experience a serious lack of opportunities to access health care and quality education.

When a one room “mediagua” (a 3x6 sq meter wooden box) is a family’s kitchen, bathroom, living room, and bedroom.. Where do the kids go to play? Official sources the day after the earthquake estimated that a half a million homes were destroyed in the quake, and another million and a half were damaged.

Local authorities in the south assure us that the government still had not rebuilt a single home for those who lost them. A few of the characteristics of Lo Espejo: a district with just over 110.000 inhabitants.

• 22,288 people unemployed • 78,935 people living on minimum wage or less • 2.804 people living in “mediaguas” More than 10,275 suffer from serious physical health issues. Another 3746 have mental/psychological disorders.

This is one of the most frequently used means to transport the ill in the district to seek medical attention. San Bernardo Characteristics of the North East Sector

Employment Situation in San Bernardo. 49% of people work without a formal contract (which means they don’t have accident, health, or severance insurance or any labor rights or leverage in case of abuse.) 37% have part-time employment or do sporadic jobs. 41% of those surveyed were unemployed.

Source: San Bernardo Municipal Community Development Registry • Our first conclusion is that the indicators and instruments for measuring poverty must be updated because currently they greatly distort reality.

• A country that wants to progress and continue developing cannot continue to hide its social situation.

• The poor of Chile need help, both from the Chilean State, and external and internal cooperation. • Thank you for your help. It makes a big difference.