ISLAMABAD: As Ehsaas — an umbrella of 20 programmes of social security and welfare — has accomplished a contemporary poverty survey for 2021 within the nation, the variety of Benazir Revenue Assist Programme beneficiaries has elevated to eight.2 million.
The primary BISP survey that was accomplished in 2011 had 23 variables to determine the deserving individuals however the contemporary one below its new title Ehsaas Kafalat Programme (EKP) has 43 variables masking wider vary of points associated to the much less privileged segments of society.
In keeping with the 2011 survey, there have been 4.8m individuals registered with the BISP along with these 800,000 beneficiaries together with authorities workers whose names have been faraway from the checklist in December 2019 for being “ineligible”.
As per the 2021 knowledge based mostly on the contemporary survey, 3.4m individuals have been added to the checklist of beneficiaries.
Talking to Daybreak on Sunday, Particular Assistant to Prime Minister on Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar mentioned: “We have completed the first-ever digital survey/data of Ehsaas Kafalat (BISP) after a two-year hectic countrywide exercise in which hundreds of trained volunteers accompanied by Ehsaas programme’s staff having laptops in their hands went door to door to accomplish the job.”
Sania says Kafalat’s digital survey has been accomplished after a two-year train
Dr Nishtar mentioned the final BISP survey had been performed via some non-governmental organisations, however this time Ehsaas workers themselves carried it out with the assistance of educated volunteers principally comprising academics. “It is the first-ever digital poverty survey in the country for which 20,000 laptops were purchased for survey teams. Once the survey of a specific area was completed, these laptops were sent to other places for the same purpose,” she mentioned, including that the survey was verified by a third-party audit.
She disclosed that after conducting the survey, her ministry was establishing facilitation desks in all districts in order that these missed out through the survey for real causes may get themselves registered. “So far we have established 350 desks. It was our plan to set these desks in all districts after Ashura,” she added.
Dr Nishtar mentioned the survey would show to be the spine for the supply of financial help below 20 totally different schemes of the federal government’s formidable Ehsaas programme to the deserving individuals whose eligibility was verified below a mechanism.
With a rise within the variety of beneficiaries, the federal government additionally enhanced the fund for the programme to Rs250 billion. “It was Rs116bn in 2018-19, Rs196bn in 2019-20 and Rs250bn at present,” she mentioned.
The PM’s aide mentioned these added to the checklist of beneficiaries have been eligible for various programmes akin to Ehsaas Waseela-i-Taleem, Ehsaas Kafalat, Ehsaas Amdan, Ehsaas Nashonuma, Ehsaas interest-free loans, Ehsaas Langar, Ehsaas scholarship, Ehsaas emergency money, Ehsaas Covid-19 fund, Ehsaas Koi Bhooka Na Soye, Ehsaas One-Window, Ehsaas Agriculture Loans, Mazdoor Ka Ehsaas, and Rehriban schemes.
Below the scholarship programme, she defined, feminine college students got extra share as they received Rs2,000 stipend per 30 days whereas boys obtained Rs1,500. She mentioned 1.3m beneficiaries had already been registered for the interest-free loans bundle.
Equally, she mentioned, 31 Langar Khanas (free meal stalls) below Ehsaas Langar had been established. They have been being run with the help of Saylani Welfare Belief, she added. She mentioned focused subsidy was additionally being given to deserving individuals in all of the 4,000 retailers of the utility shops company throughout the nation via their biometric. “This time we are also expanding the programme to include middle class of the society,” she added.
Explaining the Rehriban programme, the PM’s aide mentioned 20 carts have been offered to the deserving individuals in Islamabad as a pilot mission, which might be replicated in different elements of the nation.
Explaining the process of information assortment for digital poverty survey, Dr Nishtar mentioned the surveyors visited residences and after amassing the related knowledge transferred it to the Ehsaas headquarters, which then rechecked the small print earlier than a third-party audit to make sure transparency and take away errors.
Two years in the past, she mentioned, her ministry had eliminated over 800,000 pretend and ineligible beneficiaries from BISP knowledge together with 140,000 authorities officers in good religion. Nonetheless, the audit division requested why cash given to the officers had not been recovered, she mentioned earlier than explaining that it was the duty of different departments such because the Federal Investigation Company to take action.
Printed in Daybreak, August 23rd, 2021
