Infant Mortality Rate Can Be 23 Times Higher in São Paulo’s Suburbs

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – The neighborhood of Perdizes, in the west zone of the capital of São Paulo, records 1.1 deaths per thousand live births. In Marsilac, a rural district in the far south of the city, the rate is approximately 23 times higher: 24.6 children die before completing one year of age in each group of one thousand live births. The comparison is part of the Early Childhood Inequality Map, released yesterday, February 12th, by Rede Nossa São Paulo.

“This mortality issue shows how systemic our inequality is, because it is very much related to the health issue, but it has to do with education, with type of housing, with mobility, with a number of other issues that society and public management must be concerned about,” says the general coordinator of Rede Nossa São Paulo, Jorge Abrahão.

The executive secretary of Strategic Project Management, Alexis Vargas, who represented the city government during the introduction of the data, said that vulnerability is critical in some parts of the city. “Child mortality is a job where you go through each district,” Vargas said, explaining the difficulty in reducing the rates. “Some districts are over 20 per 1000 and they’re a shock. An absurd index,” the secretary added, as he weighed the issue.

The average infant mortality rate in the city was 11 for every 1,000 live births, more than 20 in two districts and 15 in ten regions. In ten of the 96 districts in São Paulo, the index was up to five children’s deaths in less than one year for every thousand.

Before birth

The research shows that inequalities are present even before the children are born. The percentage of children from adolescent mothers varies more than 53 times, from Moema (0.35 percent), a wel-off neighborhood in the south zone, to Marsilac (18.85 percent). They also show significant rates in Parelheiros (16.53 percent), in the southern zone, Cidade Tiradentes (16.42 percent), in the far east, and Brasilândia (14.29 percent), in the northern zone. In the weathiest neighborhoods in the west and south zones, the rates are below one percent: Perdizes (0.54 percent), Itaim Bibi (0.70 percent) and Jardim Paulista (0.74 percent).

Other issues are not even recorded in some parts of the city, such as sexual violence against children up to the age of five. In 28 districts, including Alto de Pinheiros, Jardim Paulista, Butantã, and Campo Belo, the rate of this type of abuse is zero, but in Capão Redondo, a peripheral district of the southern zone, the percentage is 0.30 percent, followed by Brasilândia, in the northern zone, with 0.21 percent, and Itaim Paulista, in the eastern zone, with 0.14 percent.

In some of the items assessed, the more central neighborhoods show worse rates, such as the amount of public equipment for the practice of sports.

In ten districts, including Alto de Pinheiros, Vila Leopoldina, República, Bela Vista and Jardim Paulista, there is no record of this type of facility. In Pari, in the north zone, there are 1.6 of these equipments for every 10,000 inhabitants, and in Jaguara, also in the north part of the city, there are 1.24.

Public services

Secretary Alexis Vargas reported that to address the problems, the city government has drawn up a strategic plan focusing on the districts that show the worst indicators for childhood in the city. “We have to ensure vacancies in kindergarten, vaccination, basic health care and home visits for 80 percent of vulnerable children in these ten districts,” Vargas said.

Jorge Abrahão, from Nossa São Paulo, stressed that ensuring the quality of public services is a means to reduce inequalities in the city. “An inequality you can effectively solve through income distribution, but also with access to quality services. So it’s going to be a combination of these issues that will reduce a disgraceful inequality in a city like this”.

Source: Agência Brasil