WORLD AFFAIRS

Strides in social sector

JOHN CHERIAN

FERNANDO LLANO/AP

A Cuban doctor, working in Venezuela as part of the Barrio Adentro programme, at work in a barrio in Caracas.

VENEZUELA under Hugo Chavez has embarked on an ambitious scheme to empower its people. The goal of the "Bolivarian revolution" is to ensure that the majority of the people participate in the decision-making process, and that their basic health, education and literacy needs are met.

Venezuela, despite being the fifth largest oil exporting nation in the world, has remained an underdeveloped country. Eighty per cent of its people live in poverty and the illiteracy rate is high. Chavez said that neo-liberal economic policies produced a million illiterate people out of a population of 25 million. The minority white elite cornered most of the benefits and enjoyed a life-style comparable to the rich in the United States. A large portion of the oil wealth found its way into private bank accounts. Corruption is still rampant, despite the efforts of the government to stamp it out. As it is, the government bureaucracy is a remnant of the ancien regime and not yet in tune with the goals of the revolutionary government.

It is in the social arena that the government has taken a big leap forward. Three years ago, the government launched a literacy programme called the "Mission Robinson". Named after Samuel Robinson, a close associate and adviser of Simon Bolivar, the South American liberation hero, it has already completed an important part of its objective - spreading basic literacy to barrios (shanty towns) and remote regions of Venezuela.

Chavez, in his opening speech at the World Forum of Intellectuals and Artistes, said that more than 1.24 million Venezuelans had already benefited from the scheme. Of them 70 per cent were elderly men and women. "Imagine giving a certificate to an old man of over 70 who actually says that he can now read and now can help his grandchildren at home in their homework," said Chavez. According to him, the new medical missions have brought down the infant mortality rate from 24 (for every 1,000 births) to 17. He said that this rate was still too high.

Some of the beneficiaries of the literacy programme of the Chavez government, in San Pedro de Guarenas.

THE work being done at the grassroots level was evident at the town of San Pedro de Guarenas, about 20 km from Caracas. The government has deployed doctors and nurses among the country's poorest communities. Almost all the 13,000 doctors, dentists and nurses deployed in the rural areas and barrios are from Cuba. Cuba has had a tradition of sending its medical teams to countries in need. In San Pedro, Cuban doctors, dentists and nurses were seen in action. The mayor of the town, which is predominantly working class and supportive of the Bolivarian revolution, said that before the arrival of the Cuban medical team, it was virtually impossible for an average Venezuelan to get affordable and efficient treatment.

The town has radical credentials. Contemporary Latin American historians give credit to the working class people of this town, employed in factories in Caracas, for launching the first anti-globalisation protest, popularly known as the "Caracasso". They swung into action when the government of Carlos Perez, under pressure from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, hiked the bus fares by 30 per cent in 1989. The protest led to a chain of events that culminated in the establishment of the Bolivarian Republic under the stewardship of Chavez.

Until Chavez came along, medical care was out of reach for ordinary Venezuelans. The joke in the old days was that death was some times more preferable to being admitted in a private hospital - the costs were unaffordable and the wait for admission was too long. There was also a shortage of doctors and hospitals. But now with Cuban doctors, teachers and physical instructors being located in the poorest barrios of Venezuela, heath and education are freely available across the country. The programme, named Barrio Adentro (inside the neighbourhood), has brought medical and social services to 17 million Venezuelans, two thirds of the country's population. The Venezuelan people have organised themselves into local health committees to supervise the operation of clinics funded by the government.

This writer saw Venezuelans waiting to get their X-rays done and their teeth fixed and queuing up for coronary check-ups. Medicine was dispensed free of charge. The residents of San Pedro said that it was for the first time that they were being treated with such professionalism and dignity. Cuban physical instructors teach young Venezuelans sports in primary schools. The old are taught physical exercises to keep themselves fit.

A small group of delegates were treated to lunch in one of the barrio houses located on a steep hill. It was a sumptuous lunch consisting of shredded pork, beans, rice and fried bananas. This kind of food is regularly received by the poor and the needy and is part of the Barrio Adentro programme. The woman in charge of running the kitchen said that most of the people who regularly took meals were the very poor and the homeless. The food is offered free of cost or at highly subsidised prices.

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