Imran launches Rs80bn poverty alleviation plan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has launched “Ehsas” — a massive 80-billion-rupee comprehensive poverty alleviation programme — as he seeks to redefine the country as an Islamic welfare state inspired by the State of Medina.“The programme is the commencement of a Jihad to alleviate poverty and bring the destitute above the poverty line,” Khan said while addressing the launching ceremony of the programme in Islamabad on Wednesday.Khan said the programme’s launch is a “reversion to Pakistan ideology under which our founding fathers decided to establish a true Islamic welfare state”.The Prime Minister said: “The first step towards implementation of Ehsas Programme is to amend Article 38(d) of the Constitution, under which provision of food, clothes, shelter and health will be treated as fundamental rights of the people.”The change would make provision of food, clothing, housing, education and medical relief for the citizens, who could not earn a livelihood due to infirmity, sickness or unemployment, a state responsibility, the Prime Minister said and described it first step towards the creation of a welfare state.The programme aims at helping the downtrodden segments of society, including the underprivileged, orphans, widows, homeless, disabled, undernourished, jobless and other needy people.Unveiling the salient features of the programme, the Prime Minister said the government would initially allocate Rs80 billion in the country’s social protection spending in underdeveloped areas from the current year, which would be raised to Rs120 billion by 2021. The Prime Minister also announced the establishment a new Ministry of Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation to address the current fragmentation of society. Various institutions like the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM), Zakat, PPAF etc would be working under that ministry, which would develop a one-window operation for social protection of the poor and to facilitate citizens, he added.Prime Minister Khan said 25 to 40 per cent of people in Pakistan were suffering from poverty and the government wanted targeted subsidies to address it. He also said the government would have a new survey of poverty completed by December this year.He said the government was also launching a new programme “Kifalat” under the BISP, adding, it would have fives pillars. The Prime Minister said the new programme was aimed at the economic empowerment of women. Under it 5.7 million women would be given savings accounts under the “one woman, one bank account plan”.He said 500 BISP and PBM offices would be transformed into digital hubs where the government’s IT, technology and innovation resources would be pooled. The government’s digital resources, such as access to the labour information system, online curricula, and one-window social protection interface would be accessible and create opportunities for BISP families to “graduate out of poverty”, he added.The Prime Minister said the government would not just give money to the poor but link it with health, and nutrition-related assistance, which would help address stunting of children.He said, under Kifalat, the government would raise the current cash transfer of Rs5,000 to Rs5,500. He said the government was launching a precision safety net, called “Tahafaz” to protect individuals from catastrophic risks — a transparent and trackable digital system of cash transfers through which the government would give legal aid, education grants and health assistance to those without Insaf card entitlements.He said the government also had plans to graduate BISP beneficiaries out of poverty for the most underdeveloped districts, adding, a programme for asset transfers worth Rs5 billion in five districts had additionally been launched through Kifalat.The Prime Minister said the government would use the social mobilisation skills of the rural support programmes and their network of community organisations for this purpose. In Tahafaz, he said, the government would provide assistance to poor widows who had no source of income and no earning children.To help the most marginalised segments of society, he said, his government would partner with organisations that support street children, seasonal migrants, transgenders, victims of child and bonded labour and daily wage workers who do not find daily work.He said, in order to provide a secure future for the orphans, the PBM would expand its network of Ehsas homes for children to provide decent living, food, education and health facilities to 10,000 children in four years.Khan said the government would also help “upscale” reputed private institutions for orphans, so the government could fulfil its objectives of serving the poor. He said the government had already committed to launching the Insaf Insurance Card in 38 districts for 3.3 million people over a four-year period and had committed Rs33 billion for this.In addition, he said, through Tahafaz the government would cater to additional needs of those requiring financial access to treatment. The government would make sure every poor and deserving person approaching public hospitals had access to treatment and surgery, he added.

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