Public policies to fight child labor: challenges for comprehensive health care and intersectoriality

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the normative acts to combat child labor sanctioned in Brazil between 1990 and 2018. This is an exploratory-descriptive, document-based, qualitative research. A total of 102 documents were included, namely: normative acts published in Brazil from the years 1990 to 2018, which address the confrontation of child labor. The data were grouped in an analysis matrix organized by type of normative act, year of publication, and ministerial origin, observing the political periods. The results express significant differences in the formulation of public policies, such as the absence of normative acts in the health sector in the 1990s, when the Unified Health System was being structured. Changes were made in the focus of investment, from education and cash transfers to the Bolsa Familia Program, increasing the accountability of families. The vocational training policies, despite being recognized as instruments to fight child labor, present contradictions, since they advocate an action to meet the prevailing economic interests. This model of construction and action reflects on the relationship between the various fields of public policies for combating child labor, causing limitations in intersectoral practices and in the integrality of the attention aimed at children and adolescents.

Keywords:
Child labor; Health policy; Public Health; Education; Politics