Poverty score card survey being conducted by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is likely to be finished in October, Business Recorder has learnt. Well-placed sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that the BISP comprehensive poverty survey was initiated in 2009. "The poverty score card survey was to be completed in 2011 but due to high security risks in FATA, the survey process could not be completed in time", sources said.
"Now the poverty score card survey has been completed in Mohmand, Bajaur and Kurram Agencies while in North and South Waziristan and Orakzai Agency, the survey is under-completion and will be completed by October", sources added. "North and South Waziristan are high security risk areas and the administration of BISP is afraid that if the security situation further deteriorates, the survey process would be further delayed", sources disclosed.
The poverty survey collects data on some 23 variables, including household members' characteristics such as gender, age, and schooling attainment, as well as ownership of selected household assets, land and livestock. Based on these criteria, a poverty score is calculated for each household; those falling below the cut-off score are deemed eligible for BISP cash grants. Based on their poverty scores, payments to some initial beneficiaries (identified by MNAs/MPAs) were stopped.
According to a World Bank report titled "Pakistan: Towards an Integrated National Safety Net System", the living conditions in militancy-affected areas of Fata are significantly worse than in the rest of Pakistan, and need to be considered in the design and implementation of safety net programmes.
Militancy-affected areas are also significantly different from the rest of the population in terms of indebtedness. In militancy-affected areas of Fata, about 45 percent of households are facing indebtedness. The likelihood of being in debt, for those in the militancy-affected areas who would qualify for BISP assistance under the poverty scorecard targeting mechanism, is even higher at 54 percent.
The report says that the reasons the surveyed households provide for debts are illuminating, in that they are predominantly to cover very basic requirements: 44 percent of households turn to debt to buy food, 28 percent to cover health expenditures, 7 percent to repair their house, 5 percent to cover routine expenses (transportation, clothes, shoes, and school-related spending), only 7 percent for productive investments (renting land, buying/feeding animals, buying agricultural assets), 3 percent to pay for ceremonies, and 6 percent for other purposes.
The two main difficulties faced by households in militancy-affected areas are common to the rest of Pakistan: food price increases and health expenditures. In addition to the debt issue a sizable share of the population is affected by the militancy directly, with over 16 percent of households mentioning high levels of insecurity, almost 8 percent mentioning strict rules imposed by the militants, 28 percent mentioning curfews/ bans, 12 percent mentioning fighting and military attacks, 8 percent mentioning displacement, and 6 percent mentioning house being damaged during fighting.
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