'BISP striving to make women self-sufficient'

Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is striving to make women self-sufficient by providing them financial assistance, said Chairperson BISP Farzana Raja while addressing a seminar on "Women Empowerment" at the National Centre for Rural Development here on Thursday.
She said BISP has two objectives: one is to reduce poverty and the other to empower women by making them financially independent, adding we are trying to achieve these objectives through monthly cash grants and the Waseela-e-Haq initiative. Farzana said it is noteworthy that only women are the beneficiaries of BISP as only they can register with the programme and get financial assistance.
She said BISP was providing Rs 1,000 per month cash assistance to its beneficiaries and under the Waseela-e-Haq initiative over 700 deserving families are being given Rs 300,000 each month through a computerised draw. Farzana said since registration with BISP requires production of CNIC, therefore, rate of women registering with Nadra has also gone up.
She further said a nation-wide poverty survey has been launched to collect data, which will then be used to identify deserving families. She said that Benazir Smart Card has also been launched in four districts as alternate payment mechanism through which the card-holder could easily draw cash from BISP designated franchises in their area.-PR