Institutionalized vulnerability: the social bases of lack ofprotection in the emergency scenario due to COVID-19 in Paraguay

ABSTRACT

Through a mixed approach, the research aimed to study the Paraguayan social structure in its relationship with the situation of the child and adolescent population in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This made it possible to identify three risks first, the increase in poverty, because of the suspension of economic activities and the reduction in income. Second, the risk of social fragmentation, where the institutional support of the State focuses assistance on a segregated manner and, many times, under clientelist criteria, dismantling certain types of organization and collective action. Third, the affront against integrity, in which girls and adolescents are victims of gender inequalities. The three risks synthesize living conditions associated with concrete vulnerabilities, erected on the fragile terrain of poverty, precariousness, and exclusion.