Basic income from Zika to Covid-19

supporting care workers in humanitarian emergencies

Authors

  • Juliana Santana Universidade de Brasília
  • Raquel Lustosa Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
  • Luciana Brito Universidade de Brasília
  • Ilana Ambrogi Fiocruz
  • Martha Ysis Universidade Federal da Paraíba
  • Simas Simas Universidade de Brasília

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic mirrors the Zika epidemic to show that public health emergencies are most devastating for vulnerable populations, especially women. Caregivers of children affected by Congenital Zika Syndrome live an intense care routine. They are young, black women, with low formal education and with precarious paid work relationships. The pandemic has exacerbated the intensity of care work, already socially devalued and unpaid. Sanitary measures to control the disease also weakened family subsistence conditions, commonly limited to informality. Among women affected by Zika, WhatsApp serves as a space for social mobilization and exchanges of experiences. Through ethnographic research in the groups, we concluded that the Emergency Income is an essential social protection measure to mitigate the impact of humanitarian crises during health emergencies, as seen during the Zika epidemic and now during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this sense, we argue that social policies must be sensitive to the various inequities for adequate protection of those who do the care work.

KEYWORDS:
Reproductive work. Public health emergencies. Emergency aid. Zika. Covid-19.

Illustracion: Alisa Pincay @alisapincay

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Author Biographies

Juliana Santana, Universidade de Brasília

Graduada em Serviço Social, Universidade de Brasília

Raquel Lustosa, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

Doutoranda em Antropologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

Luciana Brito, Universidade de Brasília

Doutora em Saúde Pública, Universidade de Brasília

Ilana Ambrogi, Fiocruz

Doutora em Bioética, Ética Aplicada e Saúde Coletiva, Fiocruz

Martha Ysis, Universidade Federal da Paraíba

Mestra em Direitos Humanos, Universidade Federal da Paraíba

Simas Simas, Universidade de Brasília

Mestranda em Antropologia Social, Universidade de Brasília

Ilustração: Alisa Pincay @alisapincay

Published

2022-12-05

Issue

Section

Ethnographies about a sindemics: Covid-19 and interactions