Trabalho infantojuvenil nos milharais do município de Nossa Senhora Aparecida-SE

Abstract

Child and adolescent labor is part of a naturalized reality, given that, during their process of insertion and interaction with the social environment in which they are inserted, child and adolescent labor is legitimized over traditional values. It is no coincidence that since the beginning of human history, children and adolescents have been introduced to agricultural work, as helpers for their parents, as a way of learning, or even to avoid being idle because they “have nothing to do”. The municipality of Nossa Senhora Aparecida-SE is consolidated territorially in the dimension of local and regional markets regarding the organization of corn production, whether individually or in a chain, in the agro-industrial segment. It is in this context that child and adolescent labor is used and exploited with its particularities in this municipality. This study analyzes child and adolescent labor in the corn production segment in the municipality of Nossa Senhora Aparecida-SE and its effects on the reproduction of low- yield family farming. In addition, the research addresses the spatialization of corn cultivation in Nossa Senhora Aparecida–SE, considering causes, reasons and consequences of the absorption of rural child and adolescent labor and the action of public policies with family farmers with child and adolescent labor. To achieve the intended goal, it starts from the empirical-analytical condition, with a qualitative-quantitative basis, using the following methodological procedures: bibliographic review of the topic; collection of secondary data, such as from the last Agricultural Censuses (2006 and 2017); carrying out fieldwork, with interviews with social and institutional actors; as well as the application of semi-structured questionnaires with students and teachers from three school units in the municipality, two in the urban area and one in the rural area. Thus, the study of the spatialization of corn production in Nossa Senhora Aparecida, and the insertion of child and youth labor, as a supplementary work relationship in the form of family work articulated with agricultural practice in the municipality, has gained prominence and contributed to the increase in child and youth exploitation, reflected in the quality of school performance and with it in the obscurantism of future access to the formal labor market.