Institutional ethics of care in Serbia during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study on the effects of the lockdown measures on girls and women trafficking survivors

Extreme situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic transparently show all the shortcomings of the Serbian system that should, in theory, provide support and protection to citizens in such circumstances. A particularly demanding task was to determine and measure the well-being of individuals during the pandemic, especially those from marginalized groups whose needs are not the priority to the system even under regular circumstances, those on the bottom of the social hierarchy who cannot influence the policies that shape their daily lives, or the decisions of authorities that further reproduce social inequalities. The paper examines institutional ethics of care during the pandemic in Serbia through the analysis of the adequacy of lockdown measures and their effects on the girls and women trafficking survivors. Analysis of the data collected in semi-structured interviews with girls and women showed that three central elements of the institutional (ethics of) care: the purpose of care, recognition of power relations, and the need for pluralistic tailoring of care to meet individuals’ needs, were not fulfilled during the pandemic and that the logic of institutional care has had a politicizing character in Serbia.