Project developed by a working group involving 20 ministries ensures rights for paid or voluntary caregivers
The project of the National Care Policy prepared by the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) must be received by the National Congress this Wednesday (3.Jul.2024).
The Bill provides for public policies and guarantees of rights for both those who work in paid services and for people who provide care voluntarily, but who end up excluded even after having spent years serving others.
In both cases, women, mainly, are responsible for these services. In Brazil, according to the Ipea (Institute of Applied Economic Research), there are approximately 47.5 million people involved in care, of which 78% are women and 55% are black women.
WORK GROUP
The Bill on the National Care Policy was drafted by a working group involving 20 ministries. The Bill will be signed by President Lula at 9:30 am, at the Planalto Palace.
According to the government, the proposal aims to guarantee the rights of both people who need care and those who provide care, in addition to promoting the necessary changes for a more equal division of care work within families and between the community, the State and the private sector.
INNOVATION
The government believes that the bill will be innovative in recognizing the importance of social and gender co-responsibility in caregiving tasks. Among these new features, the document establishes care as a right for all people to be implemented progressively, based on priority groups.
These priorities are children and adolescents, elderly people and people with disabilities, paid workers, and people who are not paid to care for others.
The project also guarantees access to quality care, decent work for those who are paid and work in care, and a reduction in work overload for those who provide unpaid care.
For more than a year, according to the government, the Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger, Wellington Dias, celebrated that there was dialogue with states, municipalities, civil society, international organizations, the private sector and parliamentarians.
DISPROPORTIONATE
The ministry’s National Secretary for Care and Family Policy, Laís Abramo, lamented that the responsibility for providing care still falls disproportionately on families and, especially, on women.
The Minister of Women, Cida Gonçalves, also assessed that the National Care Policy recognizes the importance of care work and promotes the co-responsibility of society and the State in this process.
“We need to think about how to reduce the amount of time women spend on caregiving in Brazil, not only through actions by the federal government, states and municipalities, but also by sharing the demands of care with men so that the work of caring does not fall solely on women.“, said the minister in a government statement.
This causes women to stop studying or working, as highlighted by the Secretary of Economic Autonomy and Care Policy of the Ministry of Women, Rosane Silva.Around 30% of women who had to stop looking for work in 2023 were in that situation precisely because they had to balance their time with domestic and care work.”, he stated.
The Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Silvio Almeida, declared, in a video published on social media, that the federal government has taken another step forward in implementing care in Brazil.
With information from Brazil Agency.
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