Deserving families would be given Rs12,000 under ‘Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme’

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr. Sania Nishtar on Tuesday said that the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme has been approved for giving cash assistance to 10 million people affected due to the spread of novel coronavirus.

Also adding that she will hold a press briefing during this week with regard to the ‘Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme’, which she claimed would benefit 67 million people around Pakistan.

On the micro-blogging website, Sania Nishtar tweeted, I will do a press conference this week to explain how the “#Ehsaas Emergency Cash and SMS program” will be implemented”.

Earlier in the day, she had announced that the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme had been approved for 10 million people, wherein Rs12,000 would be provided per family. In a Twitter thread, she mentioned that 67 million people in total would benefit from the new plan.

 

“Daily wage earners are our top priority, whose livelihood has been badly affected by the corona-induced economic downturn,” she said, adding that the affectees were put into three categories — 4.5 million existing Ehsaas Kafaalat beneficiaries, all of whom were women, 3 million affectees to be identified through the national socioeconomic database, and around 2.5 million to be identified through the Ehsaas SMS route.

The SAPM added that eligibility for the second category would be “relaxed upwards” as the people who previously earned up to Rs20,000 and “have now suffered economic shock and are without livelihood” would be helped”. These people were not currently enrolled in the database, she clarified.

She further said that data analytics will be used to ensure that the system is “not abused” adding that national identity cards of those declared eligible will be passed to Ehsaas’ partner banks and simultaneously an SMS message will be sent to them directing them to collect money through the nearest bank.

Dr. Nishtar remarked that the government would ensure coronavirus protection measures during payments which include the use of hand-washing/disinfectants at cash disbursement sites, increase in the number of Point of Sales to reduce crowd, special sites, distancing in queues & use of new currency notes.