Fresh surveys of poverty will be conducted in all provinces to assess the level of poverty across the country after the recent floods, said the Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation Shazia Marri while speaking in the National Assembly.

She said that the new directions have been issued to all the concerned government departments in all provinces on the orders of the Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. The recent floods have “increased the levels of poverty in the country by destroying livelihoods and washing away critical productive and agricultural infrastructure. Therefore, it has become a necessity to get fresh estimates on poverty in the country to realign policy with actual numbers on the ground. International aid organizations have also produced reports that poverty has increased in the country.”

“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a recent meeting has directed the provinces to carry out fresh poverty surveys to determine the level of poverty after the recent floods,” she added.

“Immediate measures by the government to alleviate poverty include PKR70 billion worth of direct cash transfers to the people in most need of help. Most of these people will be found in the flood-affected regions of the country,” she said.

 “Out of the total allocated amount, a total of about PKR66.22 billion had already been distributed among 2,648,824 families so far across the country through the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP),” said the minister.

BISP is working in all provinces of the country. In Balochistan the number of families that have benefited from the program is 241,163. Most of these families are flood-affected. The purpose of the emergency cash transfers is to help people get out of their difficult conditions and to remake a livelihood out of their limited resources. Till then the BISP will come to the aid of poor people so that they can have some security of food and shelter.

The Minister told the assembly that a program of PKR5.7 billion is being devised with the input of the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives. “Key interventions under this program will include the development of a forty village social enterprises program around agriculture and livestock value chains and the transfer of productive assets to the eighty thousand ultra-poor households for income generation and self-reliance,” she added.

“To develop the productive capacity of rural youth the government plans to train 15,000 bright young students from the flood-affected areas. They will be trained in using computers, navigating the internet and use of modern gadgets smartly. They will be enabled to use and sell on e-commerce platforms like amazon, fundamentals of freelancing, and making and selling digital content,” she continued.

The budget of the Benazir Income Support Program has been increased to PKR364 billion given the emergency needs of the poor people. The purpose of the new poverty surveys is to assess how much more money will be needed to help these poor people. The main goal of the government is to enable the people to improve their socio-economic conditions through their own initiatives by giving them enough money to invest and engage in productive economic activity.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk