Rio Favelas In Brazil

On the other hand, there is Rio’s ‘favelas’, the complete opposite of Addis Ababa. A favela is the term for a slum in Brazil, mostly within urban areas. Even before the first favela came to fruition, poor residents were pushed out of the city and forced to live in the suburbs, far away. However, most contemporary favelas appeared in the 1970s due to rural exodus. That is when many people moved away from rural areas of Brazil and moved to cities. Unable to find a home to live in, many people ended up in a favela. The people who live in favelas of Rio are known as ‘Moradores da favela’, or derogatively as ‘favelados’. Favelas are linked with extreme poverty. Rio’s favelas can be seen as a product of the unequal distribution of wealth in the country. Brazil is regarded as one of the most economically unequal countries in the world with the top 10 percent of its population making 50 percent of the national income and
One solution was the eradication of the favelas and favela residents that occurred during the 1970s while Brazil was under military governance. These favela eradication programs compulsorily removed over 100,000 citizens and placed them in public housing projects or made them return to the rural areas that many emigrated from. Another effort to handle urban poverty came by way of gentrification. The government wanted to enhance the favelas and mix them into the inner city with the newly urbanized upper-middle class. While these "upgraded favelas" became steadier, they began to attract members of the lower-middle class, pushing the past favela dwellers onto the streets or outside of the urban center and into suburban communities, away from opportunity and economic development. In Rio, the majority of the homeless population is black, and a part of that can be credited to favela gentrification and dislocation of those in extreme