The consequences of the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic outbreak struck in full children and youth. We know that everything that happens in the lives of parents while workers, has a huge impact on children's lives: schedules, labour links, wages, are decisive for the organisation of family life. From the moment that all teaching establishments were closed, on March 13th, these consequences became gigantic.
For many hundreds of thousands of families, the closure of nurseries and kindergartens, schools of all levels of education, after school activities, study centres and centres of after-school activities, determined the impossibility of going to work or a complex effort to guarantee employment with children of all ages, levels of development and needs, remaining at home.
The situation we are experiencing is unprecedented, and has specific complexities for families with children. The PCP has reaffirmed that the way to fight the virus which came to be a real danger in our collective life is not, cannot be, losing rights, increasing exploitation, abandoning large sections of the population to their fate.
Children must be specially protected, always and particularly at this stage. The abrupt interruption of routines, schools, socializing with friends, teachers, grandparents and the rest of the family, the prohibition to leave home except for "hygienic strolls", the lack of space and company to play with, widespread fear, are aspects that have everything to negatively mark the development of children. Accompanying them in these months requires love, patience and creativity, to ensure that this period is spent in an environment of the greatest possible tranquillity and affection.
But it also requires material conditions, which are not replaced by any internet tutorial on how to organise activities at home with the kids. The government's first measures to "support families" as soon as schools closed were unfortunately not in the right direction: cuts of one-third of the wages for those staying at home with children, absence of support if one parent stays at home and during the Easter holidays.
The consequences of increased exploitation continue to befall workers: on the one hand, one million under lay-off, with the resulting loss of wages and instability; more than 350 thousand in unemployment, loss of rights, forced vacations that jeopardise rest and future plans; on the other hand, pressure in many companies and essential services for more workload and not to activate the mechanisms to support the family; in addition, hundreds of thousands of self-employed workers and micro and small entrepreneurs were suddenly left without any income.
This is the reality experienced by a large number of families with dependent children. We know, even from studies carried out during the troika period that children, even at a very young age, perceive and upset about the economic situation of the families, with instability and insecurity. We know that child poverty - which affects almost one fifth of children in our country - is directly linked to unemployment, low wages and the precariousness of parents’ jobs.
The possibility of child poverty numbers soaring again, having fallen back with the restoration of wages and incomes, is huge and must be stopped immediately.
That is why ensuring wages and jobs is the most decisive measure. In addition to the immediate ban on dismissals, with the reversal of all those carried out during this period, and the guarantee of payment of wages to all workers, the valorisation of work and workers, their wages and rights, is decisive for the living conditions of every worker and the children in his charge. Valorising careers and professions, increasing wages, and in particular the National Minimum Wage, combating deregulation of working hours, cutting weekly working hours to 35, ensuring that a permanent job corresponds to a permanent contract. These are the most decisive measures. Fighting for them, in every workplace and in every company is essential.
In addition to the impact of attacks on workers' rights, there are other problems that decisively interfere in the lives of children and youth, to begin with naturally at school. Of course, the situation is different for a baby who attends a nursery, for a child who is adapting to the first years of schooling, for a young person worried about access to higher education, or for a child with some type of disability or need for support. Today we will not delve deeper into all the impacts on the pedagogical field and the solutions that have been found for distance learning. It should only be noted that the interaction with other children, that the achievement of autonomy, that the discovery of the world that the school stimulates, is necessary for the full development of children. They are not replaceable by videoconferences and television classes, no matter how much we respect them - and we do respect - the efforts of professionals and schools, especially in a context that enhances socio-economic differences between children. What will a child, a young man, think when he learns that, unlike his colleagues, he cannot follow classes online because he doesn't have a computer or internet? The PCP is not opposed to the reopening of schools, naturally guaranteeing all security conditions. We believe that face-to-face classes and socializing with other children are indispensable.
In the case of children who attend IPSS (Private Social Solidarity Institutions), with nursery, pre-school or after-school activities, there is another reality to take into account, that is, the monthly fees. We speak, for example, of nurseries: 70% of the total number of vacancies belongs to the solidarity network, which moreover cover only one third of the babies. The government did not issue guidelines to the IPSS on the amount of rebate in monthly fees, giving rise to situations as diverse as institutions that exempt families from payment and others that kept payment unchanged. With the majority of families with less income, with domestic expenses increasing, this is a problem that is neither small nor simple. The PCP will table in the Assembly of the Republic a regime that guarantees the immediate review of the monthly fees in case of loss of income and a minimum rebate of 20% while the institutions remain closed by order of the authorities.
During this hearing we will hear testimonies and interventions from comrades and friends who will address many other spheres of the lives of children and their families. Problems such as access to healthcare or therapies, which are particularly serious in the case of children with special needs; the breach of compliance with the National Vaccination Plan, which reaches very dangerous figures; monitoring pregnant women; the reality of households living in homes with poor conditions; the difficulty of access to public transport; mental health; teleworking with children at home, etc.
The PCP does not claim to make a definitive analysis of the reality and the consequences for the children during this period that we are going through, mainly because there is still a lot of water to flow under the bridge. The question is, as in everything else in life, how we grab this reality and turn it into a fairer reality which guarantees security against the virus, which respects the right of children to be children, which gives conditions to working fathers and mothers in full and with rights.
