Prime Minister Imran Khan during his visit to South Waziristan today launched Ehsaas Kafaalat programme in the district and reviewed the status first-ever digital survey in the district.
The Ehsaas National Socioeconomic survey based on which the Ehsaas Kafaalat and many other stipends will be given to deserving people in the district has already commenced on January 9, 2021.
This is the first time the population of the district will benefit from a transparent and rule based social protection program”, said SAPM Dr. Sania Nishtar. “Ehsaas enumerators are going house-to-house with tablets to collect district-wide information, as we speak” she further added.
While in South Waziristan, PM oversaw payment to select number of Ehsaas Kafaalat beneficiaries through Ehsaas’ digital payment system. Ehsaas Kafaalat is the government’s flagship safety net programme through which it gives monthly cash stipends of Rs. 2,000 and saving bank accounts to the poorest women across the country.
The currently fast-tracked and end to end digital survey in South Waziristan will build the foundation of wide-ranging social protection interventions in the area. Results of Ehsaas survey will determine which households in the district are eligible to benefit from monthly Kafaalat grants, Waseela-e-Taleem Digital quarterly stipends, Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarships, Ehsaas Interest Free loans for small enterprises and Ehsaas Amdan assets for income generation. Ehsaas
Registration desks will also be opened in the district after the survey to ensure that missed households can come forward and register themselves.
PM was also briefed about the status of Ehsaas National Socio-economic Registry (NSER) survey. “Owing to military operation in the area, the socioeconomic survey conducted in 2011 did not cover South Waziristan, so it is a very significant step that this survey has been successfully initiated”, said Nishtar.
Overall, under the umbrella of Ehsaas, there are many social protection and poverty graduation initiatives for the socio-economic transformation of South Waziristan.
In the last one year, Ehsaas interest free loans have supported more than 3,706 borrowers through loans worth Rs. 119 million to run small enterprises. Under Ehsaas Amdan, small income-generating assets worth Rs. 240 million have been allocated for 4,000 deserving households to graduate them out of poverty. Through Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship program, around 102 scholarships have been awarded to deserving and talented students of South Waziristan in the year 2019-20.
In response to the COVID-19 crises (Apr 2020 – Octo 2020), Ehsaas Emergency Cash worth Rs. 177.85 million has been delivered to 14,821 families of South Waziristan.
Under Ehsaas Bait ul Mal Madad, individual financial assistance worth Rs. 8.83 million has been extended to special persons and those in need of education, health and cash support.
“Once the survey is completed, we will significantly enhance the quantum of social protection support to deserving people in the district. Ehsaas will benefit more than 25% population of South Waziristan this year”, said Nishtar. “More than 20,000 families are likely to benefit from Ehsaas Kafaalat, more than 35,000 children are likely to benefit from Waseela-e-Taleem Digital, and through the new 02 Nashonuma Centers which are to be established in 2021, as many as 2,500 children and mothers will additionally benefit. A Women Empowerment Center will also be established this year that will annually impart livelihood skills training to 200 deserving women. Further, an amount of Rs. 22.3 million has been earmarked for providing individual financial assistance to the poorest families in need. In addition, Ehsaas will provide 100 artificial limbs to special persons who lost their body parts in bomb/mine blasts in South Waziristan. We are also hoping more students will apply for Ehsaas UG scholarships this year to benefit from the pool of 50,000 scholarships which are given out every year under this scheme” she further added.n out every year under this scheme” she further added.
