Under the ‘Juntos’ social program, the government of Peru gives one hundred Nuevos Soles per month (S/100, which is U$31.74 right now) to all expectant mothers or mothers of children under 14. You don’t get multiple amounts for multiple children, but as long as you have at least one child under 14 you get the money for four years (which is then means tested to see if you qualify for more time).
Today, El Comercio reports from the very poor Apurimac region of Peru, where women of all ages (the report mentions a girl of 12 years old and a woman of 41, and all ages in between) deliberately get pregnant to qualify for the S/100 monthly payment.
Sorry, dudettes and dude, I’m not translating this one. It’s about the most depressing thing I’ve read this week and quite frankly I don’t feel like translating it, so if you have trouble with Spanish but want to know more, put the link through Google translator. Perhaps the worst thing is that the program is so badly explained that underage girls don’t know you have to be 18 to get the government handout and are turned away after getting pregnant and applying for their money. The story is truly pathetic, not as in reporting quality but as in the adjective of ‘pathos’.