Prime Minister Imran Khan will chair the event tomorrow on three years of completion of Ehsaas. “Since its launch on March 27, 2019, myriad social protection and poverty alleviation programmes have successfully been deployed under the Ehsaas umbrella with 98% budget benefitting girls and women”, said Dr. Sania Nishtar. Presiding the event, PM will announce the roll out of Ehsaas Rashan Riayat that offers 30% subsidy on monthly basis to 20 million families. The targeted subsidy programme will effectively lower the price for 3 essential commodities—wheat flour, cooking oil/ghee and pulses. It will disburse Rs. 106 billion in subsidies to 20 million eligible families (130 million people). In view of the globally induced recent price hike, Prime Minister has also announced the raise of Rs. 2,000 in Kafaalat stipend amount from Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 14,000 for eight million families. All these decisions have been taken to provide relief to masses. Tomorrow, Kafaalat cash assistance worth Rs. 71 billion is also being deployed in the field. Over three years, the programme provided Ehsaas cash to almost half the country’s population. Ehsaas School Stipend programme aspires to benefit 10 million children aged 4 to 22 years. Girls in all grades get a higher stipend amount. 200,000 need- cum-merit based Ehsaas undergraduate scholarships are being provided to students from low-income backgrounds. In line with PM’ vision to tackle stunting, 160 Ehsaas Nashonuma Centers are opening across all districts. One Window Ehsaas Centers are also being upscaled nationwide to integrate all Ehsaas services under one roof in each district. The National Poverty Graduation Initiative of Ehsaas includes interest free loans and small livelihood assets for poverty graduation of 3.8 million families. Under PM’s Mazdoor Ka Ehsaas, a nationwide network of model Panagahs, Langars, truck kitchens and orphanages has also been established to serve the daily wage earners with dignity. Ensuring that social protection stipends of the government serve the most deserving, Ehsaas completed the National Socio-economic Survey Registry with 34.41 million families which is South Asia’s first digital survey. The World Bank recognized Ehsaas emergency Cash as the fastest cash transfer programme worldwide amid COVID-19. According to Sir Michael Barber, the technology and data driven execution of Ehsaas has shifted the governance paradigm in the country from, “Politics of patronage to politics of performance”. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
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