Educando mulheres para educar crianças: ensaio etnográfico sobre o Programa Criança Feliz em Rio Tinto/PB

Abstract

This essay presents the results of an ethnographic research developed in Rio Tinto/PB between 2018 and 2020. Our goal is to understand how assumptions about family and childhood are articulated with certain moralities regarding "women," "children," and the "poor" in the formulation and implementation of the Criança Feliz Program. This social program is under the responsibility of the social assistance portfolio of the federal government, while in the municipality it is articulated by the Secretariat of Labor and Social Action (STAS). We used as empirical material the Guide for Home Visitin, the legislation that governs the program and the ethnographic data built from the monitoring of the actions of the PCF technical team - visitors and supervisor - with the "user" families that are assisted. Based on the material analyzed and the field experience, we understand Criança Feliz as a government technology that reinforces the stigma associated with the poor as neglectful subjects and propagates a specific maternity to be exercised by women mothers. The childhood of the "poor" child is a priori understood by the program as unhappy, and women must, therefore, be educated so that they can educate their children and, in the future, lift themselves and their families out of poverty.