Do we want poverty concentrated on children? – 06/30/2023 – Laura Machado

Article 227 of our Constitution establishes that the responsibility for guaranteeing the rights of children and adolescents is shared between the State, families and society. This means that we adults are responsible for all children and adolescents. The article also makes it clear that minors must be an absolute priority. In case of fire, they must be rescued first.

The same Constitution that determined this priority also provides, in Article 14, that only those over 16 years old can vote. We determined both absolute priority and ineligibility because we understand that children and adolescents cannot promote their rights alone. They are in the process of formation and need attention, care and protection.

Today, poverty is mostly concentrated in the population aged up to 15 years: 35% are among the poorest in the country. In the group over 60 years old, 5% are among the most vulnerable. The question remains: considering that resources are finite, does Brazilian society want to allocate more resources to the elderly compared to what it allocates to children?

Intergenerational inequality is a consequence of a large set of public policies. Probably, the labor market and Social Security policies have an enormous contribution to this picture. Our anti-poverty policy follows the same logic.

A childless couple, living below the poverty line, receives R$600 from Bolsa Família, R$300 for each member. A couple with two children receives R$800 in total, R$200 for each member. Therefore, families with children and young people receive 33% less, on average. The consequence of the current design of Bolsa Família exacerbates the concentration of poverty among children.

Maybe the fire is already happening and you need to rescue them. If young people and children had a voice, would they approve of the choices we have made for them?

The Legal Framework for Early Childhood, a law of 2016, establishes that public policies are designed and implemented in such a way as to “include the participation of children in the definition of actions that concern them, in accordance with their age and developmental characteristics”. One of the possible paths for public policy, but not the only one, if Brazilian society wants to balance the current intergenerational inequality, is to increase the direct participation of children and young people in public power decisions.

A concrete initiative is the Children’s Committee, a body that seeks to listen to children’s demands and suggestions for different segments of the municipality of Jundiaí (SP). Established in 2019, after the Municipality joined the Latin American Network – Cidade das Crianças, the group is composed of 25 children, chosen by lot – 24 of them divided between boys and girls, representing the six regions of the municipality, and one member for represent children with disabilities.

The schedule of committee meetings is fortnightly and its attribution is to research and compile an annual document delivered to the mayor, with requests and suggestions so that the municipality becomes, more and more, for children. In the many Brazilian cities that set up the committee, all dedicate a chapter of the Master Plan exclusively to minors.

Far from being a panacea for our intergenerational inequality, we should extend an exclusive chapter for children and young people in several other areas of public policy, after all, our priorities are a third of the population and it is the constitutional attribution of adults to ensure that they are well represented .

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