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Over 1 cr destitute getting monthly allowances


By BSS
Published : 03 Jun 2023 09:51 PM

Social Welfare Ministry has been giving monthly allowances to 1,09,68,878 marginalised, rural and helpless people under 23 categories across the country aimed at curbing poverty and making Bangladesh hunger and poverty free.

“Bangabandhu’s worthy daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has introduced the allowance for destitute, old aged, physically challenged, helpless, widow, oppressed women and stipend for various underprivileged students,” Social Welfare Secretary Md Jahangir Alam told BSS here recently.

He said that 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.

“We are also giving financial support for cancer, kidney, liver cirrhosis, paralyzed, stroke, heart disease and thalassemia patients to ensure their treatment across the 

country. The government is working relentlessly to make the country poverty and hunger free,” Alam said.

Apart from this, the social welfare ministry has been implementing various programmes like alternative employment and rehabilitation of beggars, capitation grant for private sector orphanages, cochlear implant and rehabilitation of burnt and physically challenged people.

According to the ministry information, Sheikh Russel Shishu Training and Rehabilitation Centre, town social welfare programme and PalliMatri Centre programmes have also been implementing for marginal section of people.

The government is giving stipend for physically challenged students, implementing transgender development, bede people development, training for underprivileged section people and tea workers livelihood improvement programme so that they can survive easily with monthly cash support.

The official information said now 57.01 lakh old aged people are getting regular monthly cash allowance Tk 500, while 24.75 lakh widows and oppressed women are receiving cash monthly allowance Tk 500 from the government through mobile banking and agent banking process.

It said the government is giving monthly Tk 850 to each disabled people and a total of 23.65 lakh physically challenged persons are getting allowances every month.

Each primary level physically challenged pupil is getting Tk 750, each secondary level pupil at Tk 800, higher secondary level at Tk 900 and higher level at Tk 1,300 per month. A total of 100,000 pupils are getting the stipend per month.

The transgender (hizra) people are getting an allowance Tk 600 per month and the number of transgender rose to 2,600, while 5,066 Bede people at 600 per month.

Some 45,250 underprivileged people are also receiving monthly allowance Tk 600.

Each tea worker is getting allowance Tk 5,000 annually and the number of tea workers rose to 60,000.

The government has been spending Tk 3,500 per month on each person at Sheikh Russel Shishu Training and Rehabilitation Centre, while each orphan at private sector orphanage is getting Tk 2,000 per month as capitation grant.

The government is also giving Tk 50,000 annually to a destitute patient for his/her treatment of cancer, liver, kidney, liver cirrhosis, paralyzed by stroke and by born heart disease and thalassemia.

Besides, the government is also giving cash support to marginal section of people in different programmes like cochlear implant and rehabilitation of burnt and physically challenged people regularly.

In the next fiscal year, the government will add three lakh new physically challenged beneficiaries under the social security protection.

The Secretary of Social Welfare Ministry said a total of about Tk 6,500 crore has been estimated for the social protection programme in the budget of 2022-23.

He said that Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had initiated the safety net programmes for rural and destitute people to change their fate and livelihood after that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had taken up the unfinished schemes of Bangabandhu and was working for people's welfare.

“The allowances were given directly through MFS, following by the government-to-person (G-to-P) system, among the elderly, widowed and abandoned women, and financially insolvent physically challenged persons. Education stipends to the physically challenged students are also being distributed under the SSN programmes,” he said.

The government is going to discard its plan to bring all elderly poor under its social safety net programmes in 100 more upazilas in a bid to prevent the non-poor from misusing the support.

However, the government's goal was to bring the 'deserving beneficiaries' of all upazilas of the country under social security in phases.

Talking to BSS, a beneficiary at Kashianyupazila in Gopalganj district Kulsum Bibi, said the government sent allowance directly through ‘Nagad’ account, a mobile phone account.

“Thanks to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ... without her honesty and sincerity we won’t get old age allowance monthly,” she said.

Nagad, the Postal Department's mobile financial service, has inked an agreement to disburse (revised) 75 percent of the total allowances under the government's social net programme.