Unjust denial?: Single women excluded from BISP eligibility

For a patriarchal society which reduces women’s worth to their marital status, unmarried daughters are a burdensome source of perpetual unease, not only for the family which raises them but also for the state which is obliged to protect them.

Launched in 2008 by the federal government, the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) was a mixed attempt to alleviate poverty whilst upholding the banner of women empowerment by awarding quarterly cash transfers to women without male family members living below the poverty line.

While divorced and widowed low-income women were included in the category of ever married and hence were eligible beneficiaries for the social safety net programme, single low-income women without male family members were purposefully excluded from the programme, forcing many female breadwinners to work extra hours in order to support their families.

Nasreen Bibi, a domestic worker from Mughalpura, has been the sole breadwinner of her house ever since her parents passed away a couple of years ago, leaving her behind to provide and care for her younger siblings. “Since I am unmarried, I am not eligible to receive the quarterly cash transfers by BISP,” lamented Nasreen, who works tirelessly at multiple houses and feels that the extra income could cushion her family’s monthly finances, partially relieving her of her exhausting workload.

Sympathising with Nasreen’s plight, Farhat Jabeen, a beneficiary of BISP from the Cantt area, confirmed that countless deserving single women in her locality despite having no male family members for security, were denied cash transfers by BISP. “Even though I am benefiting from the programme, I know of many single women who are heading their households and are in dire need of financial assistance but are not included by BISP in its eligibility criteria purely because they are maidens” affirmed Jabeen, who called out the government for its discriminatory policy.

According to Zulfikar Sheikh, Programme Director for BISP, the welfare programme had set out to offer monetary assistance, in the form of quarterly cash transfers to ever-married women only and never-married women were never part of the programme since the focus of the initiative was to alleviate household poverty by providing direct cash transfers to homemakers.

Opposing the discriminatory policy are women’s rights activists who argue that inequity in poverty alleviation programmes can act as a trigger for propelling unanticipated social ills like beggary and prostitution.

“When unmarried low-income women are not educated enough, are the only breadwinners in their family, and are also not offered financial assistance by the state, they have no option but to turn to objectionable means of earning a livelihood,” opined Salman Abid, head of a women’s rights organisation.

Abid’s concerns are supported by sociological studies which show a strong correlation between rising household poverty and women’s engagement in social vices like prostitution.

“Therefore, the programme must expand to accommodate single women and the unmarried daughters of deceased BISP beneficiaries,” added Abid.

It is worth mentioning that currently approximately 9 million households are being covered by 452 centres of BISP, which issues cash transfers worth Rs 8,500 and Rs 9,000 four times per year to all ever-married women and does not transfer the entitled amount to a beneficiary’s unmarried daughter upon her death.

In this regard, Zulfikar Sheikh, BISP’s Programme Director of General Media Pakistan said, “the aim of this programme is to empower low-income women as envisioned by Benazir Bhutto. Since the programme is linked with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) it only registers women who have a living parent and are ever married. The system is checked every year through an online survey and the assistance is given only to women who are married, divorced or widowed.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2023.