'BISP working to reduce poverty, empower women'

Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is working to reduce poverty and empower women in the country, said Chairperson BISP Farzana Raja on Tuesday. During a meeting with Iraq' Ambassador to Pakistan, Kais Subhi Al-Yacoubi, Farzana Raja said BISP was a revolutionary programme, which is striving hard for poverty reduction through empowering the womenfolk.
She told Yacoubi that BISP has introduced several initiatives to assist deserving families achieve financial independence and to start contributing to the national economy. Farzana Raja said Waseela-e-Haq was the major initiative under which deserving families are being given an amount of Rs 300,000 through a computerised draw to start their own business.
The family which receives this amount is also trained in running a business and keeping in view family members' capabilities, they are also suggested an appropriate business. Health insurance and vocational training are other big initiatives through which deserving families are given annual health insurance of Rs 25,000 and under the vocational training scheme one member of the BISP beneficiary family will be given technical training to enable one person in the family to start earning and contributing to the household income.
The Ambassador appreciated various initiatives of BISP, which he said will play an important role in elimination of poverty from the country and bring relief to a huge segment of the population. Farzana Raja told Yacoubi that BISP has developed a technology-based management and operational system to ensure transparency and objectivity in the programme.
The ambassador was also apprised of the Poverty Scorecard Survey, the first of its kind in South Asia, which is being conducted across Pakistan to identify families deserving financial assistance under BISP. Yacoubi underlined the need for enhancement of bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries, particularly in the areas of transfer of knowledge, irrigation and industry. The technical and skilled labour was also needed in Iraq, he added.