Scheduled to be released next Wednesday (28), the 2022 Census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) was one step away from being compromised. The lack of support for census takers to access remote or underprivileged areas and the resistance of some citizens fueled by false news almost made the equivalent of almost a state in Rio de Janeiro stop being counted.
Over the past three months, successive joint efforts by the IBGE and the Ministry of Planning managed to reverse the situation. A series of task forces included, at the last minute, 15.9 million Brazilians in the census. In all, there were three special operations. The first sought to reach Brazilians in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, who had never been registered. The others sought to reduce the non-response rate in two opposing environments, but with resistance to census takers: favelas and luxury condominiums.
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“This week, we are going to leave behind information from 13 years ago, from the 2010 Census. To formulate public policies, know the demands of the population and act in emergencies, we need up-to-date information. The census is essential to know who we are, how many we are and how we are today. Not as we were”, says the special advisor to the Ministry of Planning, João Villaverde.
indigenous
Conducted in March, the census in the Yanomami Indigenous Land included 26,854 indigenous people in the census, of which 16,560 in Roraima and 10,294 in Amazonas. The mutirão was essential to update the indigenous population in Brazil, estimated at 1.65 million people second partial balance sheet presented in April. The complete number will only be released in July, when the IBGE will present a specific balance of the 2022 Census for the indigenous population.
The operation in Yanomami Land was complex, but it succeeded, for the first time in history, in census 100% of the ethnic group in the territory. Because it involves difficulties in accessing villages that can only be reached by helicopter, the task force was coordinated by five ministries and brought together 110 federal servants from the following bodies: Federal Highway Police, which provided the helicopters; Ministry of Defense, which supplied the fuel; guides from the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples; employees of the Indigenous Health Secretariat of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai); in addition to the IBGE census takers.
Held from the 7th to the 30th of March, the mutirão was necessary because the traditional census was not able to reach all the Yanomami villages. Because of the operations to remove prospectors and the relocation of helicopters for humanitarian rescue actions, the census had to slow down in Februarywhen about only 50% of the territory’s population had been accounted for.
Shanty towns
In the favelas, the census ran into other difficulties. In addition to the lack of security in some places, many residents did not want to open the door to the census taker because they had received false news that they would have their social benefits cancelled. Another problem, especially in denser areas, was the lack of addresses in communities. Often, the census takers did not have information about new housing that had appeared in recent years, such as porches and slabs on the same plot of land.
“What prevented census takers from entering the favela was the lack of connection between census takers and the public authorities with the people who live there. In addition, there was a lack of awareness on the part of people due to the lack of an explanation that reached favela residents of the importance of the census and of sincere and objective answers”, analyzes Marcus Vinicius Athayde, director of Data Favela and Central Única adas Favelas ( Cufa), which helped the IBGE in the task force.
The mutirão began at the end of March, with the launch of a campaign in Favela de Heliópolis, in São Paulo, which was attended by the Minister of Planning, Simone Tebet. The operation took place in 20 states and registered subnormal agglomerations (official IBGE nomenclature for favelas) in 666 municipalities. The number of inhabitants will only be known in August, when the IBGE will release an excerpt from the 2022 Census for the favelas.
According to Athayde, Cufa first helped through a campaign called Favela no Mapa, which used the entity’s state leaders to raise awareness among favela residents of the importance of responding to the census. Next, Cufa recruited favela residents and local leaders to act as census takers and collect data from the communities where they live. There were also response efforts at community events.
“Responding to the census brings benefits back to favela residents, to their neighbors, to their families, as the government and public policies will act more appropriately for this population”, highlights Athayde.
condos
Finally, the last flank of resistance to census takers was concentrated in luxury condominiums, mainly in three capitals: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Cuiabá. “Historically, the non-response rate, which is the resident who does not answer the census taker, has been around 5%. This in all countries that take census. In these three cities, the rate was 20% in high-end condominiums”, says Villaverde, from the Ministry of Planning.
In the 2022 Census, the national average of non-responses was at 2.6% second partial balance released in January. In the state of São Paulo, it reached 4.8%, mainly due to the refusal of residents of high-income condominiums.
To get around the problems, the Ministry of Planning and the IBGE promoted a massive campaign on social networks. Part of the insertions was aimed at raising awareness of doormen, who obey strict rules for the entry of strangers. Another party clarified that liquidators do not have the power to prohibit the resident from receiving the IBGE. “Many people wanted to attend the census, but they didn’t know that the census taker hadn’t come because the trustee vetoed it”, recalled Villaverde. There were also almost 10-minute reports on local television on the subject.
According to the special Planning advisor, the mobilization was a success. “In one of these three capitals, we managed to reduce the non-response rate to less than 5% in high-income condominiums”, he says. The operation for the condominiums began on April 14th and lasted until May 28th, the last day of data collection for the 2022 Census.
obstacles
The realization of the 2022 Census faced several obstacles. Initially scheduled for 2020, the census was postponed because of the covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) forced the previous government to carry out the census in 2022.
At the time, the Ministry of Economy authorized BRL 2.3 billion for the census, the same 2019 budget that disregarded inflation accumulated over two years. With data collection starting on August 1, the 2022 Census was initially scheduled to end in October last year. With difficulties in hiring, paying and maintaining census takers, the end of the census was first postponed to February this year.
With a lack of funds and a high proportion of non-registered people, the current government decided to make a supplementary budget of R$ 259 million to the IBGE. The Ministry of Planning also decided to follow the recommendation of the IBGE Advisory Board, made up of former presidents of the body, demographers and academics, and extend data collection until the end of May. In April, a series of internal relocations in the body prevented a new request for funds by the IBGE.
Since May 29, the IBGE has been running the data, for release next Wednesday. “At the beginning of the year, the ministry made the difficult decision to follow 100% of the Advisory Board’s recommendations because the data collected so far did not guarantee the quality of the census. Now, with the special operations and the extra collection time, we are sure that the census is robust and in line with international quality parameters”, says Villaverde.
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