Success story: PM’s Ehsaas initiative protects vulnerable amid pandemic

Till July 23, over Rs158b disbursed among 13,137,230 lockdown affected people through Ehsaas payment centers

ISLAMABAD:

The internationally acknowledged “smart lockdown” policy adopted in developing countries like Pakistan has served substantially to reduce Covid-19 cases and prevented its economy from turmoil along with protecting a big chunk of population living below the poverty line mostly daily wagers and their families from the drastic consequence of hunger.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s stance of not imposing a complete lockdown, transcending all the criticism, paved the way for the country’s largest-ever social protection initiative of Ehsaas to address the financial needs of the vulnerable segment of society successfully.

A big challenge for the country, after the unusual circumstances due to Covid-19, was to implement prevention measures through limiting social interaction on one hand as well as compensating the daily wagers and labourers whose livelihood were badly affected, on the other.

To provide relief to the daily-wage and piece-rate workers, Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme was launched by the start of April to provide cash assistance of Rs12,000 each to those rendered jobless amid lockdown, through a transparent system.

Till July 23, an amount of Rs158.933 billion was disbursed among 13,137,230 lockdown affected persons through Ehsaas payment centers across the country.

According to the province wise distribution update, around Rs71.219 billion has been disbursed among 5,885,826 deserving families in Punjab and Rs48.202 billion among 3,997,997 in Sindh.

Similarly, Rs27.016 billion was distributed among 2,225,741 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Rs7.910 billion among 651,227 families in Balochistan.

In Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Rs2.614 billion was dispensed among 214,097 individuals, Rs1.160 billion distributed among 94,996 families in Gilgit Baltistan (G-B) and Rs0.813 billion among 67,346 beneficiaries in Islamabad.

According to the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Sania Nishtar, the scope of emergency cash programme, after its unprecedented success, has been expanded to reach out to around 16.9 million deserving families from 12 million with the increased budget up to Rs203 billion from the previous Rs144 billion.

Ehsaas Ration Portal was another initiative launched on April 21 after Covid-19 to protect the poor segments from starvation through creating bridge between charitable organisations, philanthropists and the deserving persons.

The primary role of the Ehsaas was focused on providing data of eligible people to the donors through registration at www.rashan.pass.gov.pk after providing their required information.

The information provided by the deserving candidates is scrutinised through using Ehsaas data analytics to determine their eligibility while the donor organisations are evaluated according to specific eligibility criteria to become partners in the program.

As many as 738,869 people have registered themselves for ration assistance through the Ehsaas Ration Portal so far while the distribution of ration among the needy has been started.

The other ongoing schemes under Ehsaas include Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship, Ehsaas Panagah (Shelter) and Langar Scheme, Ehsaas Kafalat, Ehsaas Interest Free Loans and Ehsaas Amdan and Assets Transfer Programme.

The present government has so far utilised a total of Rs254.95 billion on social protection and poverty alleviation programmes under Ehsaas.

The ‘Ehsaas Amdan Programme’, launched on February 21, 2020, has so far distributed assets worth Rs1.5 billion among 25,054 families.

The ‘Ehsaas Saylani Langar’ initiative was launched on October 7, 2019 has opened six Langar points through public-private partnership in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad.

The Ehsaas Kafalat programme, launched on January 31, 2020 has so far benefited 4,576,463 women.

The Ehsaas Interest free loan scheme, launched on July 5, 2019, has provided interest free loans worth Rs24.082 billion among 712,852 persons.

The country’s biggest Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship program, launched on November 4, 2019, has provided Rs148.94 billion to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to extend scholarship opportunity to the 50,500 outstanding but deserving students.

The preparations to launch the first-ever of its kind ‘Ehsaas Nash-o-Numa’ programme are also in full swing aiming to prevent stunting in children through provision of specialized nutritious food to pregnant and lactating mothers and their children under the age of 24 months.

The program, to be launched during the current month, will also educate the mothers through awareness sessions and informational videos about their health and hygiene. The mothers after attending these sessions will be given cash stipends also.