No state can progress without catering to the basic needs of deprived segments of its society. Thus, long before the inception of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had dreamt of a Pakistan, which was to offer its entire population equal opportunities and social justice.
After two decades, Quaid-e-Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and later his courageous daughter, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, carried forward the same pro-poor agenda. However, undemocratic forces impeded this agenda and kept the masses under the clutches of tyranny and abject poverty.
To materialise the dreams of the father of the nation and implement that ideology of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) envisaged an innovative pro-poor initiative soon after the initiation of present democratic government. Besides other measures, the BISP has introduced nation-wide poverty survey aiming to provide benefits under the programme in a more transparent, objective, scientific and effective manner.
The hallmark of this transparent, impartial and objective mechanism is provision of equal chance to every underprivileged family to apply to the programme for enrolment for cash grant and various other benefits. For this survey, "Poverty Scorecard", a scientifically developed instrument, based on Proxy Means Testing has been adopted. Poverty Scorecard-based survey has already been completed in 40 districts and it is expected that the survey of the entire country would be completed by the end of June 2011.
It's worth mentioning here that Cash Grant Payments have already been started to more than 430,000 beneficiaries identified through poverty scorecard survey in above-mentioned 40 districts. This poverty survey, being conducted in Pakistan under the BISP is first ever such initiative in the social sector of Pakistan. The poverty survey would be highly instrumental in provision of services, especially designed for the downtrodden segments of the society, in an effective and efficient manner.
More importantly, the data collected through this initiative would provide basis of qualification for any other pro-poor initiative in the social sector. Earlier, due to non-availability of any data regarding poor segments of the society in Pakistan, beneficiary identification through parliamentarians was adopted. The process was evolved on non-partisan basis and all parliamentarians, without any consideration of their political affiliations, were provided with the BISP forms to distribute among the poor families in their constituencies.
Similarly, the BISP has taken special initiative to enroll victims of 2010 devastating flood on priority basis; this step would raise the number of registered families of the BISP up to seven million and more than 35 million individuals. The survey teams of the BISP, at present, are working throughout Pakistan, including Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan to complete countrywide poverty survey.
The BISP has gained big success by translating the dreams of serving the poor populace of the country into reality. Moreover, it has set the target of 20 percent decrease in the poverty during the next three years. As the programme is attributed with the name of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, the committed team of the BISP is leaving no stone unturned to make this programme a complete success.
During the recent past, various local as well as global factors triggered the apprehensions that already impoverished would not be able to sustain this economic shock and will plunge deeper into the abyss of poverty and hunger. To confront this challenge, the BISP has introduced multiple measures in the shape of a comprehensive package of poverty alleviation. These initiatives are highly significant to break the myth that people, belonging to these helpless strata are not capable enough to initiate and run their business or to acquire the skills to change their fate.
Regarding comprehensive poverty alleviation plan, the BISP is not only providing monthly cash grants to its beneficiaries, but under the Waseela -e-Haq initiative of the programme, small entrepreneurship among under privileged segments of the society are also being promoted to enable these segments to lead a self-sustained life. Similarly, the BISP has devised a comprehensive skill development/vocational training plan for its beneficiaries with the name of Waseela-e-Rozgaar. Under this programme, one member of each beneficiary family will be imparted vocational/technical training free of cost.
As far as the much needed factor of transparency is concerned, the BISP could be termed as the first ever such initiative in the social sector of the country which has gained support and trust of various prestigious international organisations, as transparency and impartiality have been the hallmark of this programme. The present democratic government is striving hard to uplift the lives of masses of the country and this programme would be enhanced further with the passage of time.