In Mexico 8.3 million indigenous people live in poverty: CONEVAL

The National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy is a Mexican organization coordinated by the Ministry of Social Development (SEDESOL).  CONEVAL has been a ground-breaking institution in poverty measurement, providing a multidimensional approach.

In Mexico, 71.9% of the indigenous population, which includes 8.3 million people, was in a situation of poverty in 2016, warned the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social: Coneval), three out of 10, that is 3.2 million indigenous people presented three or more social needs and did not have the economic capacity to acquire the basic nutritional food items, which places them in a situation of extreme poverty.

In 2015, six states of the country concentrated 64.8% of the indigenous population: Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, State of Mexico, Puebla and Yucatán.

Marginalization and precariousness are aggravated when, in addition to being indigenous, they are women or older adults, according to Coneval’s Evaluation Report of the Social Development Policy 2018.

The education levels of this vulnerable population group are very low, 50.3% have primary education (elementary).

The Coneval indicated that in 2016, more than 30% of the indigenous people in Mexico did not have access to a balanced meal, 8 out of 10 did not have social security and 56.3% did not have basic services (concrete floor, running water, elecricity) at their homes.

Coneval states that it is necessary to move to a full inclusion approach, in which any person in the country can have access to the same opportunities for development. That it is crucial “to implement public policies aimed at indigenous peoples that contribute to improving their skills so that they compete in the labor market and in addition to have a better quality of life through well paid employment, they can access social security.”

Coneval proposes that public policies be designed that respect the cultural patterns and traditions of indigenous peoples and that promote their cultural values ​​as a source of identity.

Source: https://www.coneval.org.mx