Brazil: São Paulo City has 3,700 street children and adolescents

The capital city of São Paulo has 3,759 children and adolescents (a group of zero to 17 years old) living on the streets. The data is from the Census of Street Children and Adolescents, conducted by São Paulo City last May.

The result is 104% higher than the one registered in the previous census in 2007, when 1,842 children and adolescents lived on the streets.

The survey considers the concept of the National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents (Conanda) for children and adolescents living on the streets: minors with violated rights who use public places and degraded areas as a place to live or survive, permanently or intermittently, in a situation of vulnerability or personal and social risk.

The survey also shows that, of the total number of children living on the streets, 73.1% (2,749) use the streets as a way to survive, even if for a short period of the day; 16.2% (609) are sheltered in the Services of Institutional Shelter for Children and Adolescents (Saica) and in Special Shelter Centers for Families; and 10.7% (401) spend the night on the streets.

According to the census, 2,227 (29.2%) children and adolescents are male, 1,453 (38.7%) are female, and 79 (2.1%) did not know or did not want to inform. The age bracket from 12 to 17 is the one that concentrates the highest number, 1,585 (42%); followed by those who are up to six years old, 1,151 children (30.6%); and 1,017 (27.1%) who are from seven to 11 years old. Six (0.2%) did not want to inform their age.

According to the study, those who declared themselves as brown represent 43% (1,615); black, 28.6% (1,074); white, 811 (21.6%); 34 (0.9%) declared themselves as indigenous; 20 (0.5%), yellow; and one, brown; 166 did not know or did not want to declare.

“What is shocking is that we have 1,151 children up to six years of age, in early childhood, who are on the streets, representing 30% of the total, and, in many situations, are unaccompanied by family members and legal guardians, adults,” said the president of the Commission for Adoption and Family Coexistence of Children and Adolescents of the Brazilian Bar Association in São Paulo (OAB-SP) and member of the National Institute for the Rights of Children and Adolescents, Ariel de Castro Alves, who classified the number as appalling.

The lawyer pointed out that these children and adolescents are exposed with regards to physical integrity, child labor exploitation, sexual exploitation, and being used in drug trafficking.

“São Paulo needs to invest in approach programs, street social education, increasing the number of social educators, programs, and services. The approaches should aim at the return of the children’s family ties with their families, their return to schools, or school inclusion. We also need shelter homes, specialized reference centers with multidisciplinary teams so we can have a qualified service”, Castro Alves emphasized.

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In a note, the São Paulo City Hall said it has about 500 counselors distributed in the 27 teams of the Specialized Social Approach Service (SEAS) of mixed mode (adults and children), which offer 2,090 shelter vacancies for children and adolescents daily.

The municipal administration also said that it has a diversified network of services for children and adolescents, including in the scope of Basic Protection, which has 664 services and more than 160,000 vacancies, and Special Protection, with 276 services and more than 12,000 vacancies.

With information from Agência Brasil