Provision of vocational training, jobs planned. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:
The government plans to inject billions of rupees in vocational training of thousands of Baloch youth after the first-ever Poverty Survey revealed appalling insight into the state of the country’s western province.
Almost half of the province’s population qualifies for financial support, according to the survey carried out by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). Over 60% of the population here is living below the poverty line, it disclosed.
More than 0.45 million families from a total of 1.03 million households in Balochistan have been declared eligible for financial support based on the survey’s results. Overall in the country, 7.3 million families belonging to 27 million households qualified for financial support.
The BISP, the country’s top social security programme, has taken a shift under the new government from focusing on women to training the younger population and strengthening institutions.
“Baloch youth will remain the prime focus of this programme. We will teach them social skills by establishing new training institutes,” BISP chairman Enver Baig told The Express Tribune. “International donors have already committed to build vocational institutes in Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan.”
Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik, Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai and Baig will meet in Quetta to discuss all related issues next month.
The next meeting of the Board of Governors (BoG) to be held in Quetta will decide how 2,000 Baloch youth, in the first phase, could be trained in several institutions of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. The BoG will also ensure the early provision of cash grants to beneficiaries who qualified for monthly grants of Rs1,200 during the door-to-door poverty survey launched to identify the lowest income households in the province, Enver added.
In the absence of vocational institutes in Balochistan, Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif offered his support to BISP to get Baloch youth admitted in technical institutes in Punjab, he said.
Provisions for K-P
Meanwhile, BISP has signed an agreement with Sarhad Chamber of Commerce, aiming to provide jobs to around 4,500 youths in Peshawar. Around 1.33 million families of 3.61 million households in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa qualified for BISP under the poverty survey. The BISP administration will provide Rs6,000 per month to those working in various industries, explained the BISP chairman.
MoUs signed for employment in Sindh
More than 2.52 million families from a total 6.48 million households in Sindh are declared ‘poor’ by the survey. In a bid to provide employment opportunities, BISP has signed agreements with the Korangi Trade & Industrial Zone and other renowned international food chains. Thousands of young people in Sindh will get jobs as part of these agreements, assured the programme’s chairman.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2014.
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sounds good but pretty challenging. Traning should be arranged in metro cities Karachi / Lahore. It might work to bridge the gaps and understandings between ethnicities.