Catalina Gomez, Coordenadora da Rede em Rio de Janeiro
Segundo Rio Como Vamos, a insatisfação dos cariocas com a mobilidade e o transporte público da cidade vem crescendo nos últimos anos. A mais recente pesquisa da Rio Como Vamos foi feita em 2013 previamente aos protestos de Junho. Para compreender aquela insatisfação coletiva é importante conhecer melhor as condições do sistema de transporte público da cidade para identificar suas fraquezas e potenciais soluções.
Iniciemos com o metrô. Embora ele tenha sido inaugurado faz quase 35 anos atrás e apresente um atendimento médio de 650 mil pessoas durante um dia útil, ele está subutilizado. Por exemplo, ele tem só 35 estações em quanto o de São Paulo, tem 62 e aquele de Buenos Aires tem 86. Também existem queixas constantes sobre a superlotação, contribuindo a percursos incômodos e inseguros.
A Prefeitura reporta que perto de seis por cento dos passageiros da cidade é transportada pelo metro, enquanto os ônibus transportam 70 por cento da população com uma frota de 9 mil veículos. As vans transportam perto de 17 por cento da população. Mais o principal problema com os ônibus e vans é que eles têm que compartilhar as limitadas ruas com automóveis particulares. Só nos últimos três anos o número de carros na cidade aumentou em 225 mil. Preocupações adicionais incluem a insegurança dos percursos noturnos e os tempos de espera. Especificamente com o novo BRT, embora ele tenha sido bem recebido pelos cidadãos, ainda apresenta desafios de melhora incluindo a redução da superlotação, a falta de ar acondicionado e ventilação e acessibilidade adequada da frota.
Num evento recente do Rio Como Vamos, o Secretario de Transporte, Carlos Osório falou que “2013 será o pior ano para o transito, face às 92 intervenções sendo realizadas”. Aquelas obras temporárias esperam se converter em melhoras de longo prazo para a cidade, incluindo a expansão do metro para a zona sul do Rio, melhoras nos elevadores e outras reformas que favorecem a acessibilidade nas estações do metrô, além da incorporação de novos trens para reduzir os intervalos de serviço. A cidade também vai a implantar um conjunto de câmaras para monitorar em tempo real o sistema de ônibus e garantir mais seguridade durante os percursos noturnos e conseguir identificar problemas recorrentes e soluções pertinentes.
Embora Rio seja considerado uma cidade com um sistema de transporte bem estabelecido e completo, sua infraestrutura e respetiva operação é inadequada. Algumas soluções no curto prazo incluem o desenvolvimento de medidas de manutenção mais eficientes nas estações, trens e ônibus da frota municipal. Outras soluções mais complexas e de logo prazo incluem a redução do uso do carro particular, por meio da incorporação de taxas especiais de uso. Outras ações de longo prazo que precisam ser debatidas mais amplamente incluem o dimensionamento do transporte e a mobilidade do Rio como um tema metropolitano, não municipal. Este debate é chave para assegurar os recursos e o gerenciamento adequado do sistema.
Foto: Severino Silva
Catalina Gomez, Rio de Janeiro Community Manager
According to Rio Como Vamos, the unhappiness of residents about mobility and transportation infrastructure in Rio is on the rise. The most recent research was carried out in 2013, before the June protests started. To explain this collective disapproval, it is worth taking a closer look at the city’s public transportation system to better understand its failures and some of its potential solutions.
Let’s start with the metro. Although it was inaugurated almost 35 years ago and currently serves an average of 650,000 people on a weekday, it is considered to be below its full potential. For example, the system has only 35 stations, while the similar metro system in São Paulo has 62 stations, and the one in Buenos Aires has 86. In addition, there are constant complaints about the long intervals between trains, contributing to crowding, discomfort, and safety concerns both in stations and on the train.
The local government reports that six percent of the city’s total passengers use the metro, while buses, with a fleet of more than 9,000 vehicles, are responsible for carrying 70 percent of them. Vans are another transportation modality that account for almost 17 percent of citizen transportation. The main problem with buses and vans is that they share the limited city roads with an increasing number of passenger cars. In the last three years alone, there were an additional 225,000 new cars on Rio’s roads. Additional concerns regarding buses and vans include safety at night, and overall waiting time. Although the new BRT has been positively received by residents, challenges remain related to overcrowding, lack of proper ventilation, and accessibility.
In a recent event organized by Rio Como Vamos, Carlos Osório, the city’s secretary of transportation, mentioned that “2013 will be the worst year for transit purposes, as there are more than 92 transportation works around the city.” These temporary works are aimed at improving the city’s transportation in the long term, including an ambitious expansion of the metro line towards the city’s southern area, the installation of elevators and other accessibility features in most stations, and the incorporation of new metro trains in order to reduce the intervals of train service. In addition, the city will implement a network of cameras to monitor the provision of bus service in real time, to ensure security during night shifts, and to find and correct recurring service problems.
Even though Rio could be considered to have a well-established and complete transportation system, its current infrastructure and the way it is operated are not enough to ensure that it functions adequately. Some short-term solutions would be to put in place better and more regular maintenance efforts of all stations, trains, and buses from the municipal fleet. Other more complex long-term measures include reducing the use of cars by incorporating fees and other taxes on their users, especially in the city center. Another long-term task that needs to be further explored is moving away from a municipal scope to a metropolitan understanding of mobility and transportation in the Rio area, thereby ensuring proper resource management that takes into account the dimensions and demands of such a complex system.
Photo credit: Severino Silva
One of Mumbai’s best-known architects, PK Das, has used his profession as an instrument for social change. Arriving in the city in 1972 to study architecture, he soon thereafter got involved in movements for slum dwellers and against corruption. Forty years later, Das continues to experiment with the intersection of his craft and his conscience. Mumbai, he says, is his workshop for it all. “It’s where I shape and reshape ideas. This city allows that kind of exchange,” says Das. “What I argue is that planning and architecture are fabulous democratic instruments for social change.” Read more or join the discussion.
Mumbai’s quest to become a world-class city shines with rhetoric of “clean” and “green.” The efforts have spawned policies of making the city slum-free; demolitions, relocations and high-rise government slum redevelopment buildings define much of the existing plan and actions. Standing in between the government’s Shanghai dream and the existing state is 62 percent of the city’s population who lives in slums. The “eyesores” are taking up precious city land that has grown in value exponentially over the decades. Plans to deal with the impediments ignore the vibrant upgrading and development that has been taking place inside these settlements all over the city. Read more or join the discussion.
Monsoon clouds moved over Mumbai last week, opening up into a deluge. It’s the start of the rainy season in India — a welcome relief from the summer heat and a time to recharge water levels that had dropped to drought levels. While most people celebrate the wet months ahead, the season also brings with it a number of public health and safety hazards. Malaria is among the deadly diseases that raise alarms for public health officials, and it is slum dwellers who are most widely affected. Read more or join the discussion.
Last week, protestors in Istanbul’s Taksim Square took to the streets to stop their time-honored public meeting space from becoming a shopping mall. The city, they say, has been increasingly swallowed up by privatization and commercialization; parks and open spaces have essentially disappeared. The redevelopment story is one that Indian cities know too well. Read more or join the discussion.
This year we have been witness to two deadly building collapses. Or at least two have been widely covered by the media. The first one reported was in Thane (Mumbai), with a toll of 74 lives of mostly low-income renter families. The second one happened in Savar, Bangladesh. Over 700 people lost their lives. Read more.
In a small workshop down one of the thousands of twisty, narrow Dharavi lanes, six young men hunch over old-fashioned sewing machines. They are dressed minimally to ward off the May heat. No windows punctuate the cement walls, but a fan swirls noisily above. Their master embroidery skills are mesmerizing to watch. One sewer, now 22, tells us that he started the trade at age 10 when he came to Mumbai on his own. Still a child, he joined thousands of other children across the city in foregoing school for a meager income. Read more or join the discussion.
Concerns for women’s safety in India have dominated headlines this year. Since the horrific gang rape in Delhi last year, stories about mothers, teenagers, and even young girls being subjected to violent attacks, rapes, and other physically and sexually gruesome incidents have been reported on nearly every week, if not every day. While the Delhi rape case was committed by men who were strangers to the victim, all too often women know the perpetrators of such crimes. A 2012 Indian Journal of Public Health article paints a grim picture of domestic violence statistics. The violence, in its many forms, cuts across social and economic strata; however, poor women face violence at significantly higher rates, and their position in society leaves them with few avenues for redress. Read more or join the discussion.
Mumbai’s largest slum, Dharavi, draws attention for many reasons, and not just its size. The half-million residents of this one-kilometer-squared area come from all over the country, bringing not just a diversity of language and customs but also religious beliefs. A microcosm of Mumbai, Dharavi’s Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians live respectfully among each other — but the current harmony has not always existed. After the 1992-1993 riots depicted in the movie Slumdog Millionaire, when tensions between minority Muslims and majority Hindus resulted in hundreds dead and thousands more who fled the city, a grassroots solution called Mohalla committees helped to heal the afflicted areas. Read more or join the discussion.
Urban malnutrition is pervasive among children in India’s slums. The issue lacks attention in the urban context; instead, discussions of under-nourished children in remote villages capture headlines and government attention. “Official urban health statistics hide the appalling health and nutrition conditions of urban slum dwellers, most of whom are not ‘official’ residents of the cities, and therefore, do not get included in urban statistics,” says a 2004 article, “Nutrition Problems in Urban Slum Children.” The study found that only 13 percent of slum children have normal weight. Read more or join the discussion.
Shaila Satpute and her husband have been running a footwear shop in Mumbai for the last 15 years. Their $130 monthly profit goes to taking care of household expenses and the family’s future — educating their three children, providing them with opportunities Shaila and her husband were unable to access. The Satputes’ always had aspirations to grow their small business, but were unable to save enough to invest in more stock. That all changed when Shaila took a small loan from Mumbai-based microfinance organization, Swadhaar FinServe. Now on her third loan cycle, Shaila’s monthly profit has doubled. Read more or join the discussion.
O Brasil está vivendo um delicado momento com o aumento da violência e com uma sensação generalizada de falta de segurança. Manchetes se repetem em todo o país – roubos, assassinatos, violência no trânsito. Se por um lado, temos um Governo ineficiente sem a força necessária para combater essa insegurança; por outro, vemos uma sociedade impaciente e começando a fazer “justiça com as próprias mãos”. Leia mais.
Ano passado, o mundo viu uma transformação no Brasil com os jovens indo às ruas pedindo por novas medidas para as questões de mobilidade no país. Após uma violenta resposta policial nos primeiros dias de manifestações, a causa ganhou mais força em todo o país. A frase “Não é pelos 20 centavos” ficou famosa e foi usada para representar angústia e desejo dos jovens por novas soluções — mais sustentáveis e sociais (em mobilidade, na política, na econômica, etc). As reivindicações eram muito mais profundas do que o aumento de 20 centavos da passagem. As manifestações, porém, aconteceram há mais de 6 meses e o que mudou no Brasil — principalmente no que se refere a mobilidade? Leia mais.
No meu último post, apresentei quatro elementos que estão relacionados ao prazer de andar na cidade de Porto Alegre. Neste post aprofundarei o elemento “Descoberta”, que está relacionado a experiência de “desbravar” e conhecer melhor a região onde mora ou os bairros que visita. Leia mais.
Caminhar é uma das minhas atividades favoritas. Sempre considero ir até um lugar caminhando – e se a distância for até 5 Km é bem provável que o faça. Essa paixão me motivou – e também minha amiga e colega de Mestrado Tais Lagranha, a escrever um artigo sobre a experiência de caminhar na cidade. O objetivo foi inspirar novos projetos de design no contexto urbano para qualificar espaços públicos e a experiência dos usuários na cidade. Leia mais.
Mumbai’s hawkers fill the bustling city streets with their colorful products, foods, and services. Selling everything from fruits and vegetables to hot snacks and fashionable footwear, hawkers provide affordable products in convenient locations, often near train stations, businesses, and market areas. Nearly one-third of the city eats from a street vendor each day, and hawking provides jobs to more than 250,000 of the city’s poorest. Despite this, the municipality has taken a hostile stance on street vending, with widespread demolition of vending stalls and seizing of hawkers’ goods. In a three-part series by Professor Sharit Bhowmik, an expert on street vending and labor issues at the Tata Institute for Social Sciences (TISS), we will be introduced to the city’s street vendors, understand the laws governing street hawking, and explore possible solutions for integrating street hawkers more justly into urban life. Learn more.
Roughly one percent of the urban population in India is believed to be homeless, amounting to an estimated 3 million people sleeping under flyovers, in parks, and on pathways. Although the Supreme Court of India issued a directive in February 2010 for a fundamental right to shelter, the response of the state governments has been nothing short of embarrassing. To address this issue, micro Home Solutions (mHS) brought its interdisciplinary expertise in architecture, community engagement, and program design to homeless shelters in India — designing and building two prototypes of temporary shelters, each with a capacity of up to 80 people, at the embankment of the Yamuna River, opposite the Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT) in Delhi. Their aim: to influence local government models on the design and operations of homeless shelters. Learn more.
Despite India’s recent economic growth, improvement in the quality of life has not kept pace for a majority of the country’s inhabitants, and the mushrooming of slums without basic infrastructure is a fact of life. One of the main consequences of India’s split-screen urban economy is its radically inequitable distribution of public services — from energy, drainage and sanitation, and waste management to potable water and paved roads. Despite the willingness of the poor to pay, inefficient delivery of basic civic services is still the norm in most slums. The poor are forced to fend for themselves — even though their makeshift, homegrown solutions are often inefficient, socially unsustainable, and financially burdensome. Learn more.
The housing market in urban India has traditionally focused on the top end, with the lower-income segment virtually unserved. Families struggle, living in rented rooms in slums or low-income neighborhoods that are characterized by poor construction, cramped spaces, deplorable sanitary conditions, and a lack of basic neighborhood amenities. Monitor Inclusive Markets (MIM, a division of the Monitor Group) has spent the last six years working with developers, housing finance companies, governments, and other stakeholders to “make the market” in low-income urban housing. In doing so, MIM has found on-the-ground data that demonstrates that there is a profitable, scalable business with internal rates of return (IRRs) comparable to premium housing. Progressive developers and entrepreneurs have built a quality product profitably while creating social impact. Learn more.
On Mumbai’s shoreline, one of the world’s most toxic jobs goes almost completely unseen in the city. Shipbreakers, tattered laborers who come from the poorest areas of India, dismantle expired vessels by hand — wading through toxins and pulling apart asbestos-laden pieces as they inhale oil, gas, and other hazardous fumes. They work with almost no protective gear on these tons of floating toxicity — nearly all of which are the West’s waste. Though the big business of shipbreaking is banned in most parts of the world, the work continues in South Asian port cities, where cheap labor and lax safety standards leave workers unprotected. Learn more.
Given the ingenuity of Dharavi’s half-million residents and their eagerness to improve their circumstances, the next logical step would be to apply this entrepreneurial spirit to pressing issues in the slums: improving access to healthcare, housing, water and sanitation services. As Howard Husock’s article “Slums of Hope” shows, more and more agencies are awakening to the “resourceful and creative” population living in poverty. Husock quotes journalist Robert Neuwirth, who “extols slums as places where ‘squatters mix more concrete than any developer. They lay more brick than any government. They have created a huge hidden economy…. [They] are the largest builders of housing in the world — and they are creating the cities of tomorrow.’ In keeping with this encouraging trend, the UN even describes the Third World’s informal settlements as slums of hope.” Learn more.
After four months researching malnutrition among young children in the slums of Mumbai, Dasra concluded that child malnutrition in Mumbai’s informal settlements is, at its core, a political and behavioral issue among key stakeholders — specifically, caregivers and public health care providers. The resulting research report focused on children from birth to age three and surveyed 50 organizations working with marginalized communities in Mumbai, including SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action), Mumbai Mobile Creches, and Apnalaya. In part three of a series on child malnutrition in Mumbai, Dasra offers insights into how the public healthcare system can be improved. Learn more.
One of the most effective ways to influence redevelopment plans and the future of urban slums in India is to involve the people. Giving the people a voice and a path to express their concerns in a meaningful, democratic way would effectively bridge the opposing notions of “ground-up” development — by the people, for the people — versus “top-down” development — government-run with little outside input. Yet this is difficult in urban India, where the urban poor are egregiously underrepresented. If the structures do not change, the redevelopment will likely plow forward with little notice of the needs from below. Ramesh Ramanathan, co-founder with his wife, Swati, of the Bangalore-based organization Janaagraha, has written extensively on bringing about greater representation in urban governance: “India today has the smallest number of decision makers to population when it comes to public issues … And as for the average urban resident, forget it. Imagine if this is true for the ’empowered’ urban Indian, what it could be doing to the urban poor. They are twice forsaken: once because of their state, and once by the state.” Learn more.
In the last several decades, India has seen a twenty-fold rise in the number of motor vehicles, and while private vehicle usage rates are increasingly becoming an indicator of newfound wealth and prosperity, this also translates to a significant deterioration in the quality of life of the urban poor. Huge spending on new auto-centric infrastructure, such as expressways and ring roads, encourages more private vehicle ownership and use. This auto-centric development affects public transport subsidies, and, in turn, quality and accessibility. Lower-income groups, who are solely dependent on public transport and spend up to 25 percent of their income on their mobility, are most affected, as this decreases their prospects for income, education, health, and social care, as well as secure living conditions. Learn more.
Mumbai’s oppressive summer heat has residents awaiting the arrival of monsoon season. The rains are celebrated across the country, bringing three months of relief from soaring temperatures as well as much-needed water for farmers and their crops. In urban centers, however, the rains pose a serious threat to lives and livelihoods, especially for the poor. Slums have proliferated wherever space is available, even on disaster-prone hillsides, in floodplains, or alongside bodies of water. These shelters are flimsy in the best of circumstances. When an unexpected deluge comes down, Mumbaikers know the devastating consequences all too well. Learn more.
Él es arquitecto por la Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, y maestro en arquitectura y diseño urbano por la Universidad de Harvard; también, es World Fellow para el 2013 por la Universidad de Yale y cofundador de CONTEXTUAL.
About 80 percent of low-income rental units in India exist in the informal market. These affordable units house Mumbai’s working poor and are rented out by makeshift landlords, who are often poor themselves but who capitalize on any extra space they have at home. For migrant laborers, renting makes sense. Many migrants are short-term residents, earning enough during short spurts of work to then return to their home villages. While in the city, their circumstances are precarious, and work opportunities come and go quickly. Renting, as opposed to home ownership — which has dominated the government’s policy focus for the urban poor — allows for flexibility and a fluidity that matches the migrants’ life and experiences in the city. Chetan, for example, does not pay rent when he returns to his family in his home village for months at a time. While there is certainly a place for home ownership for the urban poor — some of whom have been the fabric of this city for generations — a mixed housing stock is essential for meeting their varying shelter needs. Learn more.
Yearlong research by Monitor Inclusive Markets in the slums and other low-income neighborhoods of Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai showed that the water quality was problematic and highly seasonal — over half of all samples did not meet government standards. In addition, residents found water difficult to access, with limited hours of availability and multiple days without supply. To respond to this dire situation, MIM has launched a project to examine this need for safe drinking water and to develop a financially sustainable, pay-per-use water plant solution that provides water in an affordable, accessible, and reliable manner. Learn more.
The Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP), accepted by the Government of Maharashtra in 2004, included a proposal that Dharavi be divided into five sectors, based on existing transport corridors and new roads envisioned by the master plan. It also included what was nominally a way to finance the building of free housing and infrastructure for Dharavi residents. This plan quickly came under attack. Learn more.
After four months researching malnutrition among young children in the slums of Mumbai, Dasra, a leading strategic philanthropic organization in India, concluded that child malnutrition in Mumbai’s informal settlements is, at its core, a political and behavioral issue among key stakeholders — specifically, caregivers and public health care providers. The resulting research report focused on children from birth to age three and surveyed 50 organizations working with marginalized communities in Mumbai, including SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action), Mumbai Mobile Creches, and Apnalaya. In part two of a series on child malnutrition in Mumbai, Dasra offers insights into how caregivers’ practices can be changed. Learn more.
Much of the discussion around services to the urban poor revolves around such basic necessities as water, sanitation, land rights, and upgraded housing. The city’s emergency services — woefully unavailable even to the wealthy — are much less present in the public debate. Yet infrastructure needs and emergency response are intimately intertwined. How can the fire department respond to a fire if water services in a given area are only available for an hour each day? If slums are undocumented and unmapped, do first responders know how to navigate the narrow alleyways? Is their equipment even capable of snaking through these tightly woven lanes? Learn more.
Latin America is the most urbanized of all developing regions. On its own, this fact could mean good news, as historically, cities have been able to reduce poverty rates and gender inequality, and have achieved substantial improvements in access to education, justice, and health services, among other benefits.
One of the most critical challenges in increasingly urbanized Latin American cities is how to enforce social integration as a strategy to reduce urban violence and promote greater social cohesion and resilience among its citizens. The dynamics of public space not only as a symbol of physical welfare but also as a determinant of equal social relations is a major challenge to be addressed. I would like to mention the case of Medellin, a Colombian city with both a complex history in terms of violence, illegal networks, and segregation, and at the same time the most dynamic cultural and economic nodes, with opportunities for structural social change in the medium term.
One of the biggest challenges we face in Latin America and the Caribbean is the reduction of poverty. We must seek equity levels to counterbalance the disturbing situation of social inequality that characterizes our countries. In this context, urban planning plays a central role. This is because improving the quality of life of families in poverty is directly related to the urban policies of inclusion and neighborhood upgrading, and has a direct relationship with competitive strategies and natural resource management.
The territories of our social life are becoming increasingly complex and diverse, especially when we live in cities that keep growing due to concentrated urbanization. The relationship between city, neighborhood, and the day-to-day seems to be a nostalgic experience rather than a reality. In this new urban condition, pluralized identities and new practices emerge to symbolically appropriate space and time. Therefore, the utopia of a more generous city invites us to promote an alternative political space for democracy and citizenship.
O Estado Nutricional dos residentes de São Paulo foi desenvolvido em 2010 pela Prefeitura para conhecer o estado nutricional da população e orientar as politicas públicas na matéria. Segundo o relatório, a prevalência de adultos com sobrepeso foi de 34 por cento e de obesidade 13 por cento. Este último dado representa mais de 800 mil pessoas obesas na cidade. Os mais afetados são homes casado maiores de 50 anos. O relatório não achou nenhuma relação direita entre nível socioeconômico e o sobrepeso; com referência à obesidade achou que ela é sofrida um pouco mais pelos cidadãos de menores ingressos, mais a diferencia não foi considerável. Leia mais o discutir.
Segundo a Coordenação Nacional de Saúde Mental, Álcool e Outras Drogas, três por cento da população brasileira sofre de transtornos mentais severos que precisam cuidados contínuos e nove por cento da população apresenta transtornos leves que precisam de tratamentos eventuais. Leia mais o discutir.
São Paulo, the biggest city in Brazil, has 11 million residents and is the epicenter of the third largest metropolitan area in the globe. It is fully urbanized and presents few connections with close by rural areas, with the exception of two fundamental aspects: (i) food supply; and (ii) shared natural resources. The following two initiatives contribute to São Paulo’s sustainable development through the expansion of urban agriculture and the conservation of natural resources, bringing greater balance between the megacity and nearby rural areas. Read more or join the discussion.
According to Brazil’s 2010 census, São Paulo has a literacy rate of 96.6 percent. Although this rate is quite high, there is not a culture of reading among the population, especially within low-income groups. This is why the Municipal Education Secretariat launched the initiative Minha Biblioteca (My Library) in 2007, aiming to promote a culture of reading among public school students. Read more or join the discussion.
A partir dos anos 90, o centro de São Paulo iniciou um processo de deterioro e degradação, atribuído à mudança de usos e dinâmicas das áreas centrais e à falta de manutenção e investimento da infraestrutura existente. Uma amostra evidente do deterioro, foi o aumento do trafico e abuso de drogas e fez que aquela área da cidade fosse conhecida como Cracolândia. A situação ficou ainda mais complicada com o aumento da população de rua morando na área e participando das atividades ilegais. Leia mais o discutir.
The Tietê river is the State of São Paulo’s most important river. Its runs more than 1100 km and crosses almost the entire state from east to west. The river is particularly important to the city of São Paulo, as it marks its urban geography. Unfortunately, the river has been polluted for years due to the lack of care, especially from the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, which encompasses 37 municipalities and has around 20 million residents. The pollution of the river began in 1920 with the construction of various infrastructure projects in the city. Then, between the 1940s and 1970s, during the city’s expansion, the river started receiving industrial effluents and domestic sewage. Read more or join the discussion.
Domestic workers — maids, cooks, baby sitters, gardeners, drivers, and so on — are a very important group within the labor market, especially in Asia and Latin America. However, domestic workers traditionally lack formal recognition, meaning that they have non-regulated working hours and lack proper compensation and access to social protection. With the constitutional amendment of March 2013, this situation has begun to change: the law requires minimum working conditions for domestic workers, putting them on a par with other salaried workers. The new rights include a regulated workload with a maximum of 8 hours a day or 44 hours a week, paid overtime, and the recognition of labor unions to ensure collective rights. Read more or join the discussion.
Good and nutritious food is accessible to all of Rio’s residents, no matter where they live. At least this is the message from Sérgio Bloch, Ines Garçoni and Marcos Pinto, the authors of the new “Guia Gastronômico das Favelas do Rio”, or “The Gastronomic Guide to Rio’s Favelas”, the first of its kind. Read more or join the discussion.
Planning the medium and long-term development of a city is not an easy task — it requires a clear framework and effective tools. In order to understand how planning takes place in Rio de Janeiro, it is important to look at the highlights of the Brazilian planning framework, and then how it is implemented at the city level. Read more or join the discussion.
Neste mapa do Rio de Janeiro, os bairros de baixa renda estão identificados em laranja, facilitando nossa compreensão sobre sua localização. Aquele mapa também nos permite aprender que estes bairros não estão localizados numa única área, mais que eles estão distribuídos pela cidade toda, desde o centro até a periferia, com concentrações na zona norte e oeste. Segundo o último censo nos sabemos que aqueles “pontos laranja” são residência de 20 por cento da população da cidade ou 1,2 milhões de pessoas. Leia mais ou discutir.
In Rio de Janeiro, there is no specific group that can be clearly classified as the “new urban poor.” There is no single large group of recently arrived migrants that have become the poorest of Rio’s groups. However, there is a special group that deserves our attention: the migrants from Brazil’s Northeast region, who migrated to Rio six decades ago, but are still one of Rio’s poorest and most excluded populations. Their migration took place between the late 1940s and the 1970s, when a large number of agriculturalists from the northeast migrated to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in search of better paying jobs in civil construction. Read more or join the discussion.