City Desk :
Safety net scheme of the government has been playing a significant role to curb poverty as 1.15 crore marginal people from 262 upazilas are getting the benefits.
“A large number of rural marginal people across the country are getting benefits from the safety net scheme of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,” Md Khairul Alam Sheikh, Social Welfare Secretary told BSS, reports BSS.
He said the government expanded social safety net programmes (SSNPs) to help rural marginal people get a better life overcoming all economic hardship.
The government has been working to bring all destitute along with transgender, bede, tea workers and other marginal section of people under the social protection programme, the secretary added.
Recently, the Social Welfare Minister said that the government is working sincerely to eradicate poverty to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and build the country as “Sonar Bangla” as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
According to the information of the Social Welfare Ministry, currently, the total number of beneficiaries of the four social safety net programmes is 1.15 crore, of which 58.01 lakh are old-aged people, 25.75 lakh widows and oppressed women and 29 lakh are physically challenged people.
It said the government is giving monthly Tk 600 to each old aged people as cash allowance while Tk 550 to each widow and oppressed women and monthly Tk 850 to each physically challenged person.
The government has also allocated Tk 112.24 crore as education stipend for 1.0 lakh physically challenged students this fiscal year (2023-2024).
The allowances were given directly through MFS (Mobile Financial Services), following the government-to-person (G-to-P) system, among the elderly, widowed and oppressed women, and financially insolvent physically challenged persons. Education stipends of the physically challenged students are also being distributed under the SSN programmes,” the secretary said.
“Bangabandhu’s worthy daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has introduced the allowance for destitute, old aged people, physically challenged, helpless, widow, oppressed women and stipend for various underprivileged students,” he said.
Besides, the government has been providing assistance to helpless, underprivileged children and youth with disabilities for their education. The education stipend program for disabled students has been introduced from the financial year 2007-08.
