Minister of State and
Chairperson BISP MNA Marvi Memon visited Dargai, Malakand today to monitor
progress of Waseela-e-Taleem (WeT) program. During the visit, Chairperson BISP
held meeting with BISP Beneficiary Committee (BBC).
There
are 60,000 BBCs, each comprising of 25 to 30 women, across the country. BISP
uses this platform to spread awareness among beneficiaries on education,
nutrition, basic counting, the rights given to women by Islam and other local
issues. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there are 2023 BBCs while in Malakand, there are
272 BBCs.
Under
WeT initiative, BISP enrolls 5-12 years old children of its beneficiary
families into primary schools. The beneficiary families receive Rs. 750/- per
quarter per child with the condition of 70% attendance compliance other than
unconditional cash transfer (UCT) of Rs. 4834/- per quarter.
In
the meeting with BBC, the Minister stated that BISP is not only contributing in
the financial and educational uplift of its beneficiaries but also in
nutrition, health and women empowerment. She said that BISP has enrolled 394,977children under WeT in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, out of which 63,907 children in
Bannu, 118,374 in
Charsadda, 13,580 in
Haripur, 19,583 in
Kohat, 47,672 in
Malakand, 79,321 children
in Mansehra and 52,540 in Nowshehra. She added
that the expansion of WeT to three more districts in consultation with Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa Education department would start in Dera
Ismail Khan, Mardan and Dir Upper from March 2018.
The
Minister informed the beneficiaries that in order to expand the outreach of
BISP and to include more deserving people in the programme, BISP would soon
start resurvey in Malakand along with the rest of the country. She urged the
public to fully facilitate and cooperate with the survey teams so that no
deserving is left out in the NSER survey.
She
enquired beneficiaries that if they are provided with three or four stipends
together instead of single quarterly stipend, would they be able to utilize the
amount for initiating small businesses and graduate out of poverty.
Beneficiaries showed excitement over the idea and shared many propositions of
small businesses and entrepreneurship which they could undertake.
Chairperson BISP encouraged the beneficiaries to enable
themselves in basic counting so that they are fully aware of release,
withdrawal and the savings from the quarterly stipend of Rs. 4,834. She also informed them that
to overcome the difficulty in using ATM by beneficiaries, BISP would soon
covert the payment mechanism to Biometric Verification System (BVS).
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