‘BISP striving to empower women through financial help’

Minister briefs UNFPA 9 million families benefitting from programme

ISLAMABAD:

Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety and Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Chairperson Shazia Marri said that the government is striving to address vulnerability of women by empowering them through income support through BISP.

She had a meeting with United Nations Fund for Population-UNFPA Representative Dr Luay Shabaneh in Islamabad on Tuesday. Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Secretary Ghufran Memon and BISP Secretary Yusuf Khan also attended the meeting.

Marri while briefing the UNFPA representative on BISP’s initiatives, said that this income support programme was started in 2008 and it gives financial support of Rs7,000 monthly to around nine million families. She said that the government has decided to increase this amount of income support by 25%.

Marri briefed Dr Shabaneh about other initiatives, including Benazir Nashonuma under which the government helps mothers and children with nutrition from pregnancy and till the children becomes two years old.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2023.