Poverty in Puno: These are factors contributing to social discontent.

Demonstrations resumed this week in the Southern Macroregion, which includes regions such as Puno, Apurimac, Cusco and Madre de Diosoccur in a context of great social discontent, with high levels of poverty and food insecurity.

Only in Fist, the latest figures from the National Statistical and Informatics Institute (INEI) show that four out of 10 people suffer from monetary poverty, with incomes below the value of the basic basket. And when multidimensional poverty is taken into account, which includes other disadvantages such as the lack of basic services, half of Puno’s population is poor.

The president of the Puno Chamber of Commerce, Francisco Akise, told the RPP about the shortcomings that exist in the region.

“Only two cities, such as Juliaca and FistThey have basic services, but in rural areas they lack these services, and many of them do not have electricity, they do not have sanitation services. We can say that about 70% of the population has basic services or nothing, they may have unreliable services, and people outside of the settlements usually do not have any basic services,” he said.

Multidimensional poverty rates are the same in Ayacucho, Apurimac and Madre de Dios, where more than 40% do not have ideal access to education, health care and housing.

The average income in 5 of the 7 regions that make up the southern macro-region is lower than the national average, which is 1327 soles per month. AT FistFor example, the median income is 805 soles per month, which is the second lowest in the country. Federico Arnillas, president of the Poverty Roundtable, notes that this is happening at a time when government policies are not helping to reduce inequality in all regions.

“In the case of Puno, Apurimac, we have agricultural and livestock activities that are generally carried out in very harsh conditions using traditional technologies (…) None of these factors provide the necessary level of income for a significantly positive standard of living for rural families in Puno,” he said.

food insecurity

to her fragile economic situation Added to this is the high inflation that the country is facing, with cities such as Puno, Puerto Maldonado, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cusco and Tacna having inflation rates above the national average of almost 9%.

The head of the Peruvian Institute of Economics (IPE), Victor Fuentes, notes that in Peru, especially in the southern part of the country, inflation has been rising in recent months.

“In Puno, Cusco, Apurimac and Madre de Dios inflation it increased from September, October to the end of December,” he adds.

Sources say that even before record inflation, the average income in these areas did not cover the basic family basket, which until 2021 cost 1,512 soles to support a family of four.

“Regions presented input averaging almost 990 sols, representing a real drop of 13% from its pre-pandemic level, this amount is almost 20% lower than in the rest of the country, excluding metropolitan Lima. This means that their income was not enough to cover the minimum referral basket,” he says.

Another important point is food security in the Southern macro-region, especially in Apurimac, Ayacucho and Cuscowhere they are in a dire situation, according to the Global Hunger Index.

In addition, INEI shows that these areas have some of the most alarming levels of anemia in the country. In Puno, 70% of children aged 6 to 35 months are anemic, while in Cusco, Apurimac and Ayacucho, half of children under three years of age are anemic.