Amid the pandemic, street vendors in Rio’s stadiums survive on donations and “kittens” | soccer

This is the case of Bárbara Barbosa Ribeiro. The family’s income comes from the Bolsa Família program, from Barbara’s work as a street vendor, without a formal contract, in the Maracanã, Nilton Santos and São Januário stadiums and from the sale of bullets on buses. A single mother of two, she used the R $ 1,200 of emergency aid to pay her rent arrears, each worth R $ 600.

– The woman (owner of the property) wanted to take me with my children. I managed to pay. But for purchases, (help) will not give this month. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. I have two kilos of rice and one of beans to last until next month. That’s because I picked up the basket from Vasco fans, otherwise I wouldn’t even have it, let it out.

A resident of Morro do Urubu, in Pilares, even considered going to the streets to try to supplement her income, but she cannot leave her home due to two factors: schools closed and the condition of her children’s risk group. Mariana and Guilherme, aged seven and nine, respectively, have bronchitis. In addition, the youngest also has juvenile idiopathic arthritis, a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the joints; In the last month, due to the crisis, the girl was left without the dose of medication for treatment.

“Otherwise I would pick up a can and sell water. I’m not ashamed, no”

The situation is even more complicated for Maracanã employees with intermittent contracts. The model, created in the 2017 labor reform, allows the worker not to have a fixed working day and to receive the hours worked. During the pandemic, MP 936 allowed the suspension of these employment contracts, receiving the Emergency Benefit (BEm).

The R $ 600 amount of the benefit cannot be doubled for single mothers or fathers, and was one of the last to be paid. The first installment was paid only last Monday (04/05).

Monique da Costa de Souza is one of the people waiting for the benefit to be paid. Without working since March 14, she has had donations to support herself and ensure the nutrition of her eight children.

– I’m living as far away as possible. God is giving me the strength to go on. If my kids have rice and beans to eat, I appreciate the fans. Bosses don’t even want to know if we have a place to get what to eat.

Often unnoticed when passing between the rows in the stands, workers feel even more invisible in times of difficulty. Without their livelihood, they have the solidarity to face the crisis.

Some groups of fans, including Vasco’s flagship fan Adriana Lisboa and red and black youtuber Guilherme Pinheiro, donated basic baskets to stadium workers.

There is also crowdfunding to raise funds for these families. Creator of the “little cow” (click here to help), Barbara approached journalist Sergio Solón Santos and initially tried to ask her friends for help, but realized that they could not handle it alone.

– Many people cannot feed their own family. State policy is needed. I tried to resort to some authorities, but I did not get a satisfactory answer. Tired of waiting for the government to take action, I made the kitty.

“Without street vendors there is no quiet show, there is no comfort during the event. They are part of the show. And when it all stops, don’t they just get attention?”

The economic crisis from the perspective of class, gender and race.

At a time when the safest guideline is to stay at home, those who suffer the most from the economic impact are the poorest strata. This is what the study “The negative economic effects of the coronavirus crisis tend to affect the incomes of the poorest”, carried out by economists at the Center for Development and Regional Planning of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Cedeplar-UFMG) .

According to the publication, the negative effect of the crisis will be 20% greater for families with incomes of zero to two minimum wages.

One of the authors of the text, professor of economics at the UFMG Débora Freire, points out that the fact that the distribution of income in Brazil is heterogeneous means that the impacts on the different social strata also occur unevenly. Furthermore, Freire explains that the majority of low-income people are employed in the most affected sectors, such as services.

– Due to the effects of the labor market, families with lower incomes tend to be more affected by less income diversification, mainly depending on income from work, while those from the upper class have income from savings, investments, earnings and dividends. Freire analyzes

The stories of Barbara and Monique exemplify data other than income. The report “Women at the center of the fight against the Covid-19 crisis”, published by UN Women, affirms that the female population is more exposed to the social vulnerabilities caused by the pandemic. The publication highlights that women are the majority in the informal employment sectors and have already done three times more unpaid work than men, a number that should triple with isolation.

In addition to gender, CIDACS / Fiocruz postdoctoral researcher Emanuelle Góes affirms that it is necessary to consider the impacts of Covid-19 on the lives of blacks. The IBGE survey on Social Inequalities by Color or Race shows that black women receive, on average, 44.4% of the salary of white men, that is, less than half, while black men receive the equivalent of 56.1% and white women, 75.8%.

– Women and blacks represent a large part of people in poverty. This is because racism structures Brazilian society, making the social distribution have a hierarchy of race and gender. The pandemic requires that we do social isolation, distance, basic hygiene care, that we stay at home. Everything that is difficult for people in poverty or in the context of vulnerabilities can do it, he explains.

In a context of financial difficulties, the teacher believes that Basic Emergency Income should be extended to 50 or 60% of the poorest population. In addition, he stresses that the duration of the benefit must be months, “for a moral and humanitarian, but also an economic matter.”

– As the retraction of income is greater for the lower social classes, which consume most of the income and are the majority of the population, the negative impact on economic growth tends to be high. By guaranteeing income for this section of the population, it softens part of the recessive impact of the crisis.

“To leave this population without income is to deepen the recession.”