Street Working Children, Children's Agency and the Challenge of Children's Rights: Evidence From Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

Drawing on data from the first large scale survey of street working children in Minas Gerais, Brazil, this article calls for a debate around how to support street working children. Street working children experience multiple human rights abuses; yet anti-poverty programmes do not target sufficiently their needs and fail to engage with their perceptions of their lives or consider the choices they make as salient for policy making. Using insights from the new sociology of childhood, we argue that policy makers need to come to terms with the agency of child street workers and adjust their policies accordingly.

Aspirations and Setbacks of Working Children in Addis Ababa: Can They Realise Their Futures?

“…Most aspire to finish school and become, among other things, teachers, doctors, engineers, development workers, professional football players, singers and business people (Table ). They have dreams similar to the Brazilian street working children studied by Grugel and Ferreira ().…”

“…To determine the presence of agency, we look at the children's decision to get a job, their ability to obtain one, their use of social networks, their planned use of time and money, the support they render to their families and their aspirations and future plans. As contended by Grugel and Ferriera (2012), decisions to work and planned use of money also provide evidence of agency.…”

In Harm's Way: Children's Work in Risky Occupations in Brazil

“…There are few studies, however, that go into detail about specific occupations of children in Brazil, 3 let alone those considered risky, in spite of the need for more targeted policy interventions in this area (examples include Cruz & Assunção, 2008;Grugel & Ferreira, 2012;Lamarão, 2000;Nicolella, Kassouf & de Barros, 2008;Saboia, 2000). Among those papers dealing with risky child labour in Brazil, the majority derive from qualitative studies of small numbers of children using non-representative samples.…”

“…Occasional or regular street work by children is an obvious source of income in times of financial stress because of low costs of entry: a street vendor need only have a small inventory to go into business, for example. Regardless of whether young people work at a fixed location or move about (for example, peddling wares), being 'in the street' exposes them to abusive language and behaviour from customers, passersby and even the police (Grugel & Ferreira, 2012). Documented behaviour of police in Brazil's major cities ranges from the extortion of bribes all the way to physical violence and murder of children working (and sometimes living) in the street (ABC Trust, 2010; Consortium for Street Children, 2010;McCreery, 2001;Scheper-Hughes & Hoffman, 1994).…”

“…Other hazards include exposure to drugs and being propositioned for sex. Yet again, as discussed by Grugel and Ferreira (2012), children engaged in street work may consider it a valuable option, and may use their earnings to pay for school or other personal expenses.…”