ABSTRACT
The Brazilian State's main measure to contain the effects of the pandemic scenario on the most unprotected is the Emergency Aid. The initial expectation was to grant around 50 million beneficiaries, however, the possibility of serving up to 80 million was worked on, causing astonishment among government technicians. How to explain the huge disparity between the government's initial expectation for granting the aid and the existing reality? In this article, we analyze the perception and construction of these "invisibles" in the Brazil of Covid-19, seeking to understand, based on emergency aid and its distribution, a huge Brazil of workers ignored by official data. Initially, we present a brief history of the neoliberal opening policies that contributed to the precarization of labor relations. And, even with a "modernizing" discourse, these relations have weakened the social protection framework, resulting in an increase in the number of the destitute that "surprises" the federal government. Next, how poverty coexists with urban inequality and the challenges to access the emergency benefit exposes a picture of disparities or traditional negligence of state action. Finally, we propose a post-pandemic reflection: lessons for planning future scenarios as a contribution in the search to overcome historical social deficiencies by recomposing a new "urban living in Brazil".
Keywords:
Covid-19; public policies; social invisibility; social protection; emergency aid