Rosali Batista de Assis can't get over it. "It looks like we are in a movie, it's unprecedented! ", the 56-year-old woman, who has always lived in the Tabajaras favela, in Rio, overlooks the legendary Copacabana district, moping around. "Downstairs, everything is closed, there is no one left on the street except the police, who tells people to go home and prevents us from working", continues this vendor of bags on the sly, joined by phone, now withdrawn into her home for fear of coronavirus, with a lump in her stomach … but without a drop of water from the tap.
"The water has been cut for over a month! So tell me, how am I supposed to wash my hands every hour, protect myself from the epidemic? ", annoys Rosali, furious. Deprived of his meager salary (1000 reais per month, barely 182 euros), it is impossible for him to buy water or hydroalcoholic gel, and even less to go shopping. "I own my house and the girl who has a permanent job will help me. But the others in the favela, more isolated, who have to pay the rent and the electricity, how are they going to do it? We are going towards disaster ”, she worries.
"The Rio workforce"
As the Covid-19 spreads, tension rises in the thousand favelas of Rio and the countless slums of the country, where a total of some 13 million Brazilians live. "There is a climate of fear and worry. Residents still don't know how to react "says Vania Ribeiro, vice-president of the Tabajaras Neighbors Association. "For now, even if many try to confine themselves, the streets remain full of people. I say to people: go home, close your shops. But they say, “Ok, but how am I going to eat? How is my son going to eat? ” People just can't stop working. It is hopeless "she continues.
In lower-income neighborhoods, pandemic and social crisis are one. "The inhabitants of the favelas are the labor force of Rio, and serve as informal workers, cleaning ladies, cashiers, daily workers, street vendors …", insists Mme Ribeiro. So many informal professions heavily impacted by the closure of businesses and the movement restrictions decreed by the municipalities. According to a study by the NGO Data Favela, which interviewed more than 1,100 people in 262 favelas in Brazil, 79% of families have already started to cut their budget because of the crisis.
