Programa Bolsa Família como estrategia de diversificação dos meios de vida rurais: uma experiência no sul de Minas Gerais

The Bolsa Família program is a public social policy that can be accessed by both rural and urban populations. The objective of this study was to reflect to which extent access to this program that was adopted to combat poverty, may represent a structuring factor of possibilities for livelihood diversification strategies. It is a qualitative research that used bibliographic review, documentary analysis, as well as semi-structured interviews with representatives of organizations and with representatives of family units benefiting from the rural area of the municipality of Luminárias, state of Minas Gerais. From the access to the Program, it was verified the maintenance of aspects related to the dignified life, made feasible mainly through the consumption and the minimization of vulnerabilities and deprivations, mainly of the women. These are fundamental aspects for overcoming poverty and for enabling diversification strategies for livelihoods. The study suggests other reflections related to structuring factors of livelihood diversification, such as the rural development model, rural-urban relations, and the quality of the services accessed through the program's conditionalities.