ERIC Number: ED338782
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1991
Pages: 48
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: ISBN-88-85401-01-5
ISSN: ISSN-1014-8795
EISSN: N/A
Brazil: The Fight for Childhood in the City. Innocenti Studies. The Urban Child in Difficult Circumstances.
Swift, Anthony
This publication is the second report, tailored to a non-specialist audience, of five country case studies under the Urban Child Program of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) International Child Development Center. The crisis of unprotected children and adolescents in Brazil has developed along with rapid industrialization and great economic instability. In 1987, 42 percent of families lived below the poverty line, and the situation is worsening. Poverty is actually more acute in rural areas, but the greatest concentrations of poor children are in the cities. Although poor, rural children do not pose the problem for society that urban children do, who often live away from their families. Most children in Brazil are workers, and see themselves that way. Those dislocated from their families and living in the streets are a minority, but a considerable and highly visible one. In Brazil, social policies were historically virtually useless in helping children, but a new day may be dawning with 1988 changes to the Brazilian Constitution that make it the duty of society to ensure the rights of children and adolescents. The Child and Adolescent Statute is legislation enabling the constitutional changes to be put into practice. The reforms apparent in child social services in the city of Goiania under the Social Promotion Foundation illustrate problems and successes under the new law. In Brazil, the mechanisms for change are finally in place. Eighteen photographs are provided. Eight sources are listed. (SLD)
Descriptors: Adolescents, Case Studies, Child Health, Child Labor, Child Welfare, Childhood Needs, Childrens Rights, Developing Nations, Economically Disadvantaged, Foreign Countries, Government Role, Homeless People, Inner City, Poverty, Public Policy, Social Problems, Urban Areas, Urban Problems, Urban Youth
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: United Nations Children's Fund, Florence (Italy).
Identifiers - Location: Brazil
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A