Income support goals: ‘Floods force 2m families below the poverty line’

BISP chairperson voices fears that another 2 million families have fallen under abject poverty line after the floods.

ISLAMABAD: The federal government fears that another two million families in the country have fallen under the abject poverty line as this year’s devastating floods washed away their homes, their livelihoods and their belongings. The central government has launched a nationwide poverty survey in the country through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) with the financial assistance of the World Bank, which is likely to be completed by mid-2011.

In an interview with The Express Tribune, Farzana Raja, the chairperson of the multi-billion public welfare BISP, said an estimated seven million families have fallen below the extreme poverty line in the aftermath of the floods. Previously five million families, with an average of five to six members each fell in the category of extreme poverty. Ms Raja, who enjoys the status of a federal minister, said a countrywide poverty survey based on international standards has already been launched after the successful completion of the pilot project in 16 districts in all four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Results from the pilot survey have identified 0.8 million families as extremely poor.

“Families who fall below the score of 16.17 will be considered for a government stipend in the near future,” she said. This is the segment of society which earns less than one dollar a day, a standard now considered obsolete internationally. The government has fixed 16.17 as the cut-off score. “If a daily income of less than two dollars is considered as the new benchmark, the number of families living in extreme poverty would rise significantly,” she said. “Due to financial constraints, however, the government is focusing on those surviving on less than a dollar a day.” The survey being conducted is based on an internationally recognised score card system. The pilot survey was held in Multan, Mianwali, Pak Pattan, Layyah in the Punjab, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar in Sindh, Karak, Lakki Marwat, Batgram, Musa Khel, Qila Saifullah, Turbat in Balochistan, Ghanchai, Diamer in Gilgit-Baltistan and Poonch in AJK.

In the first phase of the programme launched two years back, a total of 2.4 million families were selected for a government stipend of Rs1,000 per month from amongst 3.5 million applicants whose forms had been forwarded through their elected representatives.

The World Bank has provided $60 million to the BISP of which less than half the amount will be spent on the survey. The BISP chairperson claimed that that her department has evolved a unique system that can scrutinise the information submitted by applicants. She said the system rejected all those applicants who had falsified facts since the data was cross checked with NADRA. The system introduced by BISP is fully computerised so there is no chance of anybody exercising discretionary powers in selecting or rejecting applicants. “This is not a political programme, but a people’s programme which targets the poorest of the poor. Even the president and the prime minister cannot recommend a beneficiary,” Raja clarified.

For the Waseela-e-Haq programme, Raja said 750 to 800 people are selected for a loan of Rs300,000 every month through ballotting to launch their own business. This is an interest-free loan payable in 15 years with the first year serving as a grace period.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2010.