O trabalho infantil nas vias públicas de Santos à luz da pandemia da Covid-19

Abstract

This Professional Master’s dissertation had as its main objective to investigate the impact of the removal from classrooms and the social unprotection resulting from the health measures of the COVID-19 pandemic in the life and development of children and adolescents anchored at the child labor on public streets in the Santos municipality. To achieve this objective, one has surveyed and analyzed the life trajectories, schooling, and relationship with schools of 6 male adolescents, between the ages of 13 and 17, and their and their families’ access to the Services and Programs of the Social Protection Network of the Municipal Social Assistance Policy. The requirements for participation were: to frequent and to be followed up by the Specialized Service of Social Approach to Children and Adolescents/ASPPE-Research, Prevention and Education, under a contract with the Secretariat of Social Development of the Santos City Hall, and to be referenced in a Specialized Reference Center for Social Assistance/CREAS. In a quanti-qualitative approach, the research covered: bibliographic and documentary surveys updated on the theme; chart analysis of children and adolescents accompanied by the Social Work Service; daily field notes; and semi-structured individual interviews with the participants. The data collected was analyzed by using the Discourse analysis methodology of Cultural-Historical Psychology proposed by Vygotsky and Gonzalez Rey, integrated to Bardin’s Content Analysis, from the systematization of category identification, co-related with the participants’ contexts and studied texts. The ultimate goal of the dissertation is to provide contributions to the qualification of public policies that guarantee the fundamental rights of children and adolescents inserted in child labor on the streets, considering the worsening of poverty and misery and the precariousness of social protection due to the pandemic framework. As a final technical product of the dissertation, workshops will be held with the staff of the Protection network of the Public Policies for Social Assistance, Education and Health aiming at sensitizing them to identify, surmount crystallized stigmas and prejudices, and asset solutions for the child labor on the streets.