7mn families to benefit from Ehsaas Kafaalat program: Sania Nishtar

LAHORE: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar on Thursday said that 7 million deserving households were being brought into the fold of Kafaalat program through the fully transparent survey, ARY News reported.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore, Sania Nishtar said that Ehsaas survey is being executed in Lahore based on a hybrid approach.

“With the transparency and integrity at its core, the survey is being rolled out in collaboration with provincial government of Punjab, provincial Education Department and district administration Lahore,” she added.

Nishtar said that an ongoing survey for the Ehsaas programme is currently 70 per cent complete in the country. She continued, “Fully funded by the government of Pakistan, Ehsaas survey is hundred percent free of cost and voluntary in nature.

Enumerators are collecting household data on the android tablets to determine the eligibility of surveyed households regarding the unconditional and conditional cash transfers under Ehsaas, she added.

“Ehsaas Survey will cover each corner of the country till June 2021. Through this entirely apolitical survey, a new database is being established after 10 years to address the needs of the most disadvantaged households, particularly those in the informal sector.”

Newly identified deserving families will be registered till June in a phased manner after determining their eligibility and will be paid out of biometric ATMs, retail outlets and campsites of partnering banks; Habib Bank and Bank Alfalah, Nishtar added.

For the current year 2020-21, as many as 2,685 students have applied for the scholarship before the online portal closed for new applications on Nov 30, 2020, she said, adding that the scrutiny of freshly received applications is currently in progress and subject to satisfactory academic progress, the awardees of last year will continue to receive Ehsaas scholarship throughout their undergraduate degree programme.