'Information about all Ehsaas programmes now on a single platform'
SAPM Dr Sania Nishtar interacts with school girls who are the recipients of Ehsaas Primary Education Stipends in Talagang. PHOTO: APP
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar said on Sunday that the Ehsaas Digital Portal had been launched to facilitate deserving families understand their eligibility and procedure to apply for various pro-poor programmes.
All information related to various Ehsaas programmes is available through the web portal ehsaasdigital.pass.gov.pk, that can be accessed through an android phone, she said in a video message.
The SAPM said that this web portal would provide all information about Ehsaas programmes at a single platform, in Urdu.
The programmes include Ehsaas Interest-Free Loans, Educational Stipends, Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship Programme, Ehsaas Nashonuma, Ehsaas Amdan, Ehsaas Survey, Ehsaas Koi Bhooka Na Soye, Ehsaas Panahgah, Ehsaas Langar and more.
Dr Sania said that if, for example, someone lacked financial resources and wanted to apply for the Ehsaas Kafalat programme, they could get all the required information through the web portal; including details on eligibility, payment mechanism, district-level offices, payment centre addresses, contact numbers for getting additional information and a direct link to the web portal for resolving biometric and other issues.
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Similarly, she said if anyone wants to start a small business, they could click on Interest-Free Loan scheme on the portal to get all the details including eligibility and procedure to apply for the said programme.
Dr Sania maintained that it was important to educate citizens about the portal so that the underprivileged could benefit from the many Ehsaas initiatives and stay farther from corrupt elements.
The Ehsaas programme has been featured as an international best practice in the recently released edition of the UN Principles for Responsible Digital Payments 2021 report.
Ehsaas emerged as the largest social protection programme in the history of the country in times of the Covid-19 pandemic last year by benefiting almost half of the country’s population.