BISP finds it difficult to cope with new, ambitious targets

Staff has been tasked with providing 35,000 women debit cards, mobile SIMs.

UPPER DIR:

All day, thousands of women stand in long queues in Dir to register themselves with the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). 

BISP authorities have established offices in Warhi, Sheringal and Dir city to facilitate poverty-stricken women with financial assistance. However, these facilities seem paltry when on average 1,000 women are registered on a daily basis.

Sherbano, a 45-year-old widow from Warhi, said she had been waiting for her registration from 8am till the closing time (4pm), but she had not been able to get her name in the list because there is a shortage of registration points and staff members. “I came here at 6am so I would be registered first and could not move from my place all day fearing that someone else might occupy it.”

Talking to The Express Tribune, BISP Upper Dir in-charge Gul Haleem Khan said that the government has launched a debit card system for the poor women of the district. “The system had started functioning on December 1,” he said, adding that the BISP will give debit cards and also a mobile phone SIM to easily contact BISP officials.

Khan added that they will provide the debit card only to those women who have been part of the BISP before. The BISP was assigned a target of giving 35,000 cards to women throughout the district. 800 to 1,000 women are registered daily and in the past one month 6,000 cards have been issued. “It will take around four months to complete the process and provide cards to all the women,” he said.

A mobile network company have installed Point of Sale (POS) machines in Dir city from December 1, while in Warhi the POS machine will be installed on December 11, Khan said, adding that after every three months BISP beneficiaries will be given Rs10,000 through the machine. “The government has decided to expand and install these machines in every union council of the district,” Khan said.

Aside from the slow processing system, people of the district complained that they did not know how to operate a mobile phone.

Hamidah, a senior citizen, said that she visited the office for three days before being given the debit card along with a SIM, adding that she had never handled a mobile phone before. “I don’t have money to buy food, how can I buy a mobile phone for the SIM? I can’t spread my hand in front of anyone for money so I came to the government for help.” The new system is too complex for me to understand, she added.

Nadra office in-charge in Upper Dir, Naimat Shah, said that they routinely receive data of 80 people, but now the system is overburdened and details of 800 people are received every day. The registration for thousands of people is pending, he added.

“We don’t have time to have lunch or pray,” he said, adding that due to a shortage of staff, all employees have the workload of two or three people.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2012.