Amid a heated debate about Brazil’s flagship cash-transfer scheme last week, a United Nations report revealed that the country had made a giant leap on the Human Development Index (HDI) scale. The controversy erupted after a television presenter, Luciano Huck, said that Bolsa Família programme “discourages the poor from working”. As Mr. Huck was being fact-checked on social media, the UN Development Programme report revealed that the scheme had played a key role in Brazil raising its HDI score from 0.744 in 2012 to 0.805 in 2024.
On the UN scale, which ranges from 0 to 1, the score of 0.805 places Brazil in the category of “very high human development.” Among the Afro-Brazilians, the HDI grew by 10.3% over 12 years, almost twice the rate for the Whites. “Achieving this positive result is not by chance; it is the result of strong public policies and an inclusive national project focused on combating inequalities,” said Guilherme Boulos, the Federal Minister for Social Development, at the launch of the report in Brasilia.
The index measures indicators related to health and longevity, education, and income generation, with results broken down by race, gender, and region at the municipal level across all 26 states of Brazil. When the UNDP began calculating the index 30 years ago, Brazil was in the category of low human development. The steady rise, according to the government, has been driven by sustained planning and public spending. “We have made progress in education. We have witnessed success because of an expansion of public healthcare system, income distribution, real increase in the minimum wages and programmes such as Bolsa Família,” said the Minister.
Bolsa Família, launched in 2003 during President Lula da Silva’s first term, has inspired similar schemes worldwide, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India in 2006. Walquiria Rego, a sociologist who has studied the programme for years, says its success stems from providing poor families with a regular income. “As families received money every month, their eating habits improved, hunger declined dramatically and Brazil was taken off the UN hunger map,” she says.
Healthcare guarantee
From its launch in 2003 until 2023, Brazil has spent around US$ 81 billion on the scheme which has benefitted 49 million people. Extensive studies conducted by Prof. Rego show that the programme’s impact goes beyond nutrition as, with a steady source of income, poor families were able to furnish their homes and live with dignity. “The changes have been profound: people became better nourished, healthier and more integrated into social and economic life,” says Prof. Rego, whose book ‘Voices from Bolsa Familia’ is considered a landmark work.
Besides cash assistance, Brazil’s unified health system, or SUS, has played a crucial role in its HDI improvement. Brazil spends about 9.7% of its GDP of US$ 2.64 trillion on health, with SUS getting 4% of the amount. Guaranteed by the Constitution, Brazil’s free and universal public healthcare system has been a major driver of rising life expectancy. Jorge Félix, a professor of gerontology at the University of São Paulo, says the system focused on child health in the early 1990s and eliminated the diseases like measles that were major causes of illness. “Access to healthcare has expanded across the country through a network of primary health centres. This is important because 75% of Brazilians depend on SUS,” he says, adding that vaccination campaigns for children, adults, and access to treatments like cancer have improved life expectancy.
Both Bolsa Família and SUS had come under strain between 2018 and 2022 when the government of President Jair Bolsonaro imposed deep spending cuts. The weakening of the public health system, says Prof. Félix, proved catastrophic during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Beyond financing, strategic areas of SUS were also dismantled. As a result, Brazil entered the pandemic with reduced capacity to respond. Shortages of medicines and declining operational capacity left SUS significantly weakened just as Brazil confronted the biggest public health emergency,” says the academic, whose book ‘The Economics of Longevity’ examines the healthcare challenges in Brazil.
In 2022, the last year of Bolsonaro presidency, the country’s HDI had sunk low. In 2023, when Mr. Lula returned to the presidency for his third term, the government restored funding for SUS and Bolsa Família, bringing the momentum back into Brazil’s social transformation. The gains have been particularly visible in the historically poorer Northeast region. “Bolsa Família stimulated commerce in small municipalities across the Northeast because the money circulated locally, generating jobs and creating opportunities for small businesses,” says Prof. Rego.
A key reason for Bolsa Família’s success is that payments are made directly to women, particularly mothers. This policy, says Prof. Rego, has made profound impact on families. “Women are now seen as the people responsible for food and healthcare for their children. It was not simply a cash-transfer plan to alleviate poverty. It also promoted citizenship and dignity for some of the poorest women in Brazil, thus making a significant contribution to human development and social justice,” says Prof. Rego.
Election rhetoric
While the HDI figures of Brazil are in sync with the country’s commitments to the UN’s 2030 goals, experts warn against complacency. “If the State stops assisting the vulnerable and investing in SUS, the risk of social regression remains high,” says Prof. Felix.
As Brazil enters an election cycle, the far-right circles are spreading false stories about how Bolsa Família discourages people from working. Yet studies show that about 61% of people receiving Bolsa Família in 2014 had left the programme by 2025. Because of the programme’s positive impact on human development, Mr. Luciano Huck’s remarks triggered a backlash, particularly in the politically-important Northeast, which has benefitted the most from the scheme.
With the UN report giving a timely boost to President Lula, the beneficiaries of social programmes are not in a mood to accept any argument against the policies which have lifted Brazil into the zone of very high human development.
Published – June 03, 2026 08:59 pm IST