BISP given all-clear for poverty survey in FATA

Poverty survey to begin on May 3 in Fata after receiving all-clear signal from security forces.

PESHAWAR:

In what is likely to be one of the government’s first attempts at recording economic data in the tribal districts, the management of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) will begin a poverty survey on May 3 in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) after receiving the all-clear signal from security forces.

At a meeting presided over by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Syed Masood Kausar on Wednesday, BISP officials were given assurances on the safety of their employees who will be conducting the survey on household income and poverty levels in the tribal districts.

“We have been assured that the situation is clear and the teams will not face any difficulty because the survey we are going to conduct is in favour of the tribesmen,” said Ikram Ghani, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa director-general of the BISP, adding that the survey would take a month to be completed.

The survey, designed to determine which families are eligible to receive the Rs1,000 per month cash grant supported by the BISP, is being conducted all over the country. Up to 700,000 families have been registered so far, say BISP officials.

The BISP is designed along the lines of the Bolsa Familia in Brazil, a highly successful income support scheme that has helped raise the standards of living of millions of poor Brazilians.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2011.