The indigenous people of Latin America are the poorest of the poor. Even small improvements in their education would yield large gains in relative wealth
Descended from hundreds of ethnic groups and tribes that populated the hemisphere before the Spanish conquest, 34 million Latin Americans, some 8% of the population, are indigenous. What has been known about their social and economic conditions has mostly been the product of casual observation. But a recent study focused on Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru---home to more than four-fifths of the region's indigenous population---confirms anecdotal wisdom. Although their lives have improved in recent years, the indigenous people of Latin America live in conditions of extreme poverty.*
People in large parts of Latin America earn less than $2 a day, but an overwhelming majority of the indigenous population falls below this poverty line. Guatemala is the worst case. Two of three Guatemalan households are poor---but 9 of 10 indigenous families fall into that category. Elsewhere, the situation is not much better. Although only 18% of nonindigenous Mexicans live below the poverty line, 81% of Mexico's indigenous people do.
Living conditions for the indigenous population are generally abysmal. Although home ownership is higher in the indigenous areas, many of the homes are made of clay or bamboo, palm, or other plant materials. The homes of indigenous families are far less likely to have sanitary services or electricity. Water probably comes from a well. Under such conditions, child mortality rates, while declining, are still high. Often isolated in rural areas---and usually unable to pay for treatment---indigenous people are more likely to become ill, and less likely to consult a physician or be vaccinated.
Despite some improvement in recent years, indigenous people lag far behind the rest of the population in access to education. Partly for cultural reasons, partly because the parents themselves are uneducated, partly because of a demand for child labor, the children in these families more often repeat primary grades and leave school at an early age. In Guatemala more than 60% of the indigenous people have no formal education. Those who do have schooling have an average of less than two years. In Peru only 6% of the indigenous children receive some education beyond the secondary level, compared with 22% for the rest of the population. Girls have the greatest disadvantage. In all four countries studied and in all age-groups indigenous women have received the least schooling (see figure).
Indigenous people are not idle. They are more likely to have a job than the general population. But they are concentrated in low-wage sectors of the economy, work longer hours for less pay, and are more likely to be "working poor" who must hold two jobs to survive. Among the indigenous workers in Peru, 70% of the women and 63% of the men are in agriculture. Even there, they earn but a third of the wages made by nonindigenous agricultural laborers.
In Bolivia being indigenous increases the probability of being poor by 16%. But if the head of a household is unemployed, that probability nearly triples. Employment is more important than heritage. But getting a reasonably well-paying job is strongly related to education. Increasing schooling to 16 years would decrease the poverty ratio for indigenous Latin Americans by more than half.
Education can't do the whole job. If indigenous workers had the same education, experience, and health as their nonindigenous peers, half the difference in wages would remain. The explanation for this lies in part in culture and the quality of education and in part, of course, in discrimination. Mexico, for example, has made large gains in education in recent decades, but vast inequities remain. Moreover, the indigenous people receive lower wages because they are locked by custom or location into parts of the economy where low wages prevail. But there is an unrealized potential. If policymakers concentrate on ensuring that indigenous people get better schooling, training, and health services, they could vastly improve the lives of those in this group and their descendants.
The indigenous people badly need improved health services. For their own well-being and the health of their children, childbearing women need more and better medical services. A little effort can yield large results. In Bolivia poor women and their young children generally receive inferior medical service. But thanks to a targeted public clinic program, the countryÕs poor are more likely to benefit from preventive health care procedures such as tetanus vaccination. Here again, added education can help. Fertility and child mortality rates are strongly related to years of schooling. Improve education in a population group and both these indicators improve, regardless of the groupÕs origin and income.
Any attempt to improve the conditions of indigenous people must recognize that improving well-being does not mean imposing other people's values. Those who would help must consider traditional customs and knowledge.
More studies of the Latin American indigenous population are needed. Researchers need better definitions of the target population and more data. Few countries in the region identify the ethnic and linguistic characteristics of their citizens in household or labor force surveys. Deeper analysis also is required. Indigenous people in rural areas, for example, often are active in unpaid but productive activities that outsiders misrepresent as unemployment or underemployment.
The goal, however, is to reduce poverty---to improve the living conditions of this large mass of people. Even without further research, if policymakers focus on ensuring equal access to schooling, training, and health services, much of the income differential between indigenous and other workers would disappear. And a large segment of the Latin American population would rise out of poverty.
* For more details, see George Psacharopoulos and Harry A. Patrinos, eds., Indigenous People and Poverty in Latin America: An Emperical Analysis, Washington, DC: World Bank, 1994.
