POLICIES FOR THE SOCIAL INCLUSION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN ECUADOR

Abstract

The indigenous people of Ecuador are divided by nationalities and aboriginal peoples; Currently, according to the National Council for the Development of Nationalities and Peoples of Ecuador (CODENPE), in the Ecuadorian territory, in the Costa, Sierra and Oriented regions, there are 14 nationalities and 18 indigenous peoples, each with its own worldview, customs and traditions. The generals that regulate the behavior of these cultures are the ama killa, ama llulla, ama shwa (not to be idle, not to lie, not to steal), they practice the minka and ayni, which are models of community cooperation and collaboration. The exclusion of indigenous people has been a problem, which, from generation to generation, for more than 500 years, our aboriginal brothers have had to endure, until June 2022, according to the National Survey of Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment (ENEMDU, 2022 ), income poverty in the rural sector was 42.9% and extreme poverty reached 22.7%; that is, of the approximately 1,080,000 indigenous people, 463,320 indigenous people live in poverty and 245,160 live in extreme poverty; which implies pointing out that the discrimination, exclusion and exploitation of this group of priority attention is recurrent. The manuscript answers the question: Have public policies of social and political inclusion improved the quality of life in the indigenous communities of Ecuador? The results allow us to establish that public policies for social and political inclusion are mechanisms that materialize the rights to citizen participation and a dignified life, not only of indigenous people, but of all citizens of Ecuador; however, these strategies are not fulfilling the stated objective, which is why the quality of life in the rural sector where the majority of aborigines reside has not improved significantly.