9 cash distribution centres established for 67,000 families

FAISALABAD: District government and local management of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) had established nine cash distribution centres across the district to provide benefit to the 67,000 registered families. Due to unplanned arrangements by the authorities, women were forced to sit under the sunny sky without following social distancing guidelines and a designated area for sitting was cordoned off by law enforcement agencies for long hours.

Beneficiaries of the Ehsas Emergency Cash Programme have called off per family contribution of Rs12,000 for four months by the federal government under the BISP, having no utilisation mechanism to earn a sustainable income.

Officials arranged sanitisers on the main entry gate of the cash distribution centre at Dhudiwala and Jaranwala Road but women were not provided hand washing facilities. They were ordered to go straight to the verification and cash counters. Sumera Khanum, a woman who came to collect relief money, said she had borrowed money from her relative for the marriage of her two daughters and the BISP money is insufficient to clear her debt burden because her husband worked at a workshop which have been closed due to the lockdown.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th, 2020.