Pakistan Bait-ul-Maals' Food Support Programme (FSP), Individual Financial Assistance (IFA) Programmes under the administrative control of Social Welfare Ministry have recorded certain cases of community involvement, excessive documentation and heavy bureaucratic red tapism.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Friday that Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal targeted poverty reduction programmes showed that it recorded discretion in decision-making without community participation. The FSP programme is a cash transfer programme that provides Rs 3,000 to beneficiaries in one annual instalment to allow them in meeting their basic nutritional needs, they said.
Food Support Programme uses a combination of geographical and administrative targeting and funds are allocated to the provinces and regions according to an approved quota of beneficiary households on the basis of population not the number of poor, they said.
Assistance is provided to the needy individuals having no income including those with major ailments, disabilities, widows with dependant children, invalid with dependant children, infirm senior citizens above 65, orphans, destitute, victims of unpredictable circumstances and the poorest of the poor to be reviewed periodically for rehabilitation, they said.
Beneficiary households are selected by a task force nominated by PBMs' district committee which is dominated by public officials and the only criteria provided to the task force is to ensure that all selected households are below the poverty line, they said.
The Individual Financial Assistance (IFA) programme provides support to the poor, widows, destitute women, orphans and the handicapped through various programmes however, the assistance can only be obtained once a year, they said.
Furthermore, IFA first allocates funds according to the poverty profile of the provinces and aid is made available to the needy on first come first serve basis according to set priority criteria. However the final decision is taken by the PBM officials, they said.
Ineligibles are: the government employees and their family members, beneficiaries of other social welfare agencies, false declaration or provision of wrong information may result in recoveries and permanent ineligibility or will be debarred from all PBM schemes, they said.
National Centres for Rehabilitation of Child Labour (NCsRCL) have been kept away from labour and established countrywide where children between the age of 5-14 years are provided free education, books and stationary and each student receives Rs 10 daily. Moreover, parents receive Rs 300 per month subsistence allowance as wage compensation, they said. Only 150 centres could not meet the required needs, as high number of street children requires establishment of more centres in the country, they argued.