Low income families to benefit from Child Support Programme

ISLAMABAD: 20,000 poor families registered to get monthly stipend for their school going children.

Pakistan Bait ul Maal conducted the enrolment campaign registering children form the age bracket of 5 to 16. from May 11 to May 15 in eight districts including Rawalpindi and Multan from Punjab, Abbotabad and Shaheed Banazir Abad from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Quetta and Kharan from Balochistan and Muzaffarabad and Ghanche from Islamabad Capital Territory.

"The amount in the form of `Conditional Cash Transfers' is given to the ultra poor families for sending their children to school in the age bracket of 5 to 16 years", said an official of PBM while talking to APP.

He informed that the annual allocation of the programme is Rs 120 million and the programme provides cash incentive of Rs 350 per month if the family has one child and Rs. 600 per month if the family has more than one child admitted to school and regularly attending at least 80 percent classes.

As a pilot project the programme was initially started in three districts including Tharparkar, Bhakkar and Kohistan which supported 12,000 families having 36,000 children.

The programme is being extended as the World Bank has provided technical assistance in designing and implementing systems in line with well executed Conditional Cash Transfers across the world, he said.

Implementation of the programme is carried out in close coordination with Education Department, District Government, NADRA and Payment Agencies like Pakistan Post, he informed.

He informed that the payment is made on quarterly basis through selected branches of Pakistan Post Office.

The official further said that if a family fails to admit the children to a school or ensure 80 percent of class attendance, then amount for that specific quarter is not paid as a penalty.

To further strengthen this programme, transparent proxy means test/score card are made by using different scientific methods, he said adding, the effective implementation of all systems/processes are addressed properly for ensuring maximum relief and easy mechanism for the existing CSP beneficiaries.