Do the street level bureaucracies from the city of São Carlos make the CadÚnico a worth program and effective tool for recognizing poor people and guarantying them access to citizenship?

• Grant number: 13/20349-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Public Policies
• Principal Investigator: Carolina Raquel Duarte de Mello Justo
• Grantee: Samanta do Prado
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Today, in Brazil, the inclusion of people in social programs offered by the three federal entities - Federal Government / Union, States and Municipalities - is done primarily through an instrument called Single Registry for Social Programs of the Federal Government (CadÚnico). Created in 2001, this is a tool for recognizing poor people and making their inclusion in social programs easier, through a series of information included in an electronic online form, such as education and income, household characteristics, access to basic sanitation, housing conditions, etc. Since the CadÚnico is seen as a tool for identification and characterization of low-income families, targeting their inclusion in the social protection system, the project aims to determine, through a case study in the municipality of São Carlos, 1) its validity and effectiveness regarding the recognition and characterization of these families, considering the territoriality and diversity, and 2) its ability to provide them access to citizenship, through their civil and symbolic recognition by the State - both in legal terms and in terms of public servants who represent and act for them - and then, via the guarantee of social rights and benefits. The research will be guided by open interviews, participant observation and field notebooks in order to know the opinions, assumptions, assessments and working procedures of everyday bureaucracies and managers of the Division of the Single Registry of San Carlos on this instrument. With this, it is assumed, it will be possible to ascertain the role and influence of these public servants, who work in the "front line" of social welfare policy in the city, for the validity and effectiveness of CadÚnico, besides their possible contributions to the improvement of the instrument and their ability to provide access to citizenship to local poor people. (AU)