Prime Minister Imran Khan during his visit to Sukkur district of Sindh will visit a payment site-camp to review the Ehsaas Kafaalat disbursal operations that have just begun this week.
The PM is expected to join the beneficiary women of Kafaalat program to witness and evaluate the details of biometrically enabled payments. He will also interact with the women present at the campsite to gain firsthand insights on the multitude of Ehsaas programmes and initiatives in Sindh particularly Ehsaas Kafaalat.
Ehsaas Kafaalat is the government’s flagship safety net programme that provides monthly cash stipends of Rs. 2,000 and saving bank accounts to the poorest households across the country. Safeguarding safe and easy digital payments amid the third wave of COVID-19, Ehsaas has set up 516 specialized payment camps throughout Sindh to roll out recently opened Kafaalat payments for the period Jan 2021 – Jun 2021. Combined payment for 6 months is being made. Alongside, payments can also be withdrawn from biometrically enabled ATMs of Habib Bank across all districts of Sindh.
Sukkur Division is one of the seven administrative divisions of Sindh, in which as many as 714,756 million beneficiaries received Ehsaas Emergency Cash worth Rs. 8.2 Billion last year, meanwhile, the 381,206 poorest women are currently benefiting from Kafaalat; 185,104 million children are being supported under primary education conditional cash transfer; 7,211 borrowers (79% women) received interest free loans of Rs. 228 million and 250 students (33% girls) were awarded Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarships last year.
Ever since its launch, in March 2019, interest free loans and several other sort of funds have been rolled out in Sindh to uplift the deserving households via – Kafaalat, Waseela-eTaleem Digital, undergraduate scholarships under the banner of Ehsaas program.
A total of 2.4 million women beneficiaries are being served with the monthly stipends of Rs. 2,000 each through Ehsaas Kafaalat, and the number is expected to increase with the enrollment of new households, through the ongoing Ehsaas survey, that is expected to be completed nationwide, by June 2021.
Ehsaas Emergency Cash worth Rs. 56.7 Billion was dispersed during Covid-19, in all districts of Sindh among more than 5 million households.
Interestingly, last year alone Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarships awarded 6,187 need and merit-based scholarships worth 561.34 million to students from low-income backgrounds.
Separately, Ehsaas interest free loans have so far supported more than 47,869 borrowers among whom 64.7% are women, through loans worth Rs. 1.5 Billion to run small enterprises in 18 districts. Ehsaas Amdan has transferred small income-generating assets worth Rs. 1.83 Billion to 30,652 deserving households in 7 districts of Sindh to graduate them out of poverty.
Under the first phase of Ehsaas Nashonuma, the programme has opened 6 Nashonuma centers in 5 Tehsils of Badin to tackle stunting among pregnant and lactating mothers, and children under 2 years of age. Over 7,000 mothers and children in Badin enrolled under Nashonuma are currently getting specialized nutritious food to prevent stunting in children along with cash stipends (Rs. 2000 for girl child and Rs. 1,500 for boy child per quarter).
Nearly 1.4 million deserving children are benefitting from the quarterly stipends (Rs. 2000 for girl child and Rs. 1,500 for boy child per quarter) under primary education conditional cash transfer programme.
With an aim to serve free meals and provide to daily wage earners, under the Ehsas program 5 new Pana-gahs have recently been opened in Karachi. Last year, Ehsaas Langar was set up in Umerkot to serve free meals two times a day.