ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Friday voiced concern over the biometric verifications in the government’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme and Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) which in some cases were unable to be established due to age and occupation.

Detailed briefings on the programmes were the top agenda item of the Senate Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, which met with Senator Naseebullah Bazai in the chair.

Senior officers from the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar briefed the members.

The meeting was informed that the objective of these programmes was to address on-ground core issues related to human development. While members showed concerns over the biometric verifications, which in some cases were unable to be established due to age and occupation, they were assured that maximum efforts were being made to address them and ensure ease of operations. It was also revealed that less than seven per cent of the beneficiaries faced such a problem and they were given 16 attempts before being referred back. The transactions for such cases were routed through banks. Keeping in view similar issues a long-term plan was being formulated.

Regarding disbursement of funds, the committee was informed that initially the NFC formula was being used. However, now disbursements were made on account of the poverty index as per data of the national socioeconomic survey.

Regarding federal and provincial share in the budget, the committee was informed that the federal government had allocated 35pc for the programme and 65pc was to be shouldered by provinces.

In case of filters and risk of exclusion of the deserving, the committee was informed that since funds were limited screening was mandatory to ensure that those who were most in need were not left out. Filters had been relaxed for the Ehsaas ration programme for which registrations were ongoing.

The members were informed that the Ehsaas Kifalat Programme of BISP was initiated in 2008. Currently, a beneficiary is being paid Rs2,000 a month. The target is to enhance the number of beneficiaries to eight million by 2022. An amount of Rs1,104 billion had been disbursed since the inception of the programme.

The Ehsaas Taleemi Wazaif Programme was introduced to encourage enrolment and control dropout rates amongst disadvantaged communities.

Children of active Ehsaas Kifalat Programme beneficiaries were eligible and given Rs2,500 for boys and Rs3,000 for girls. Disbursement of Rs19.38 billion to Rs4.15 million children has been made thus far.

The Ehsaas Nashonuma Programme had been introduced to tackle malnutrition in children. All Kifalat Programme beneficiaries with children from six to 23 months were benefitting from unconditional cash transfers. The programme was operational in 14 districts.

The Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship Programme envisaged providing merit and need-based scholarships over 4-5 years of undergraduate education. It comprised tuition fees and stipend to cover living costs. About 50pc of these scholarships are reserved for women while the Higher Education Commission (HEC) was the executing agency of the programme.

The committee was informed about the upgradation of all field offices to Ehsaas one-window programme to enable delivery of the multiple Ehsaas programmes through one-window approach. An estimated 469 Ehsaas one-window centres would be established across the country. The members were invited to visit one such centre in Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2021