PRESIDENT Dr Arif Alvi on Sunday urged the people to fully support and spread the message of ‘Khair Khawa’ programme, creating awareness in the society about a prosperous family.
In a video message posted on his twitter handle with regard to observance of the World Population Day, he said they wanted Pakistan to emerge as a healthier and prosperous country.
The President deserves credit for highlighting issues that really matter for people of Pakistan and his impassioned appeal to the nation to support the ‘Khair Khawa’ programme must be heeded to by well-to-do and affluent segments of the society as this offers a way out for effectively tackling the problem of abysmal poverty.
In his message, the President not only highlighted the need for proper birth spacing for a healthier nation but also drew attention of the wealthy people towards the plight of the poor and their social and moral responsibility to take care of them.
There is no doubt that the Government is striving at its level best to mitigate sufferings of the poor and in this regard it has introduced a multi-pronged Ahsaas programme, which has started creating an impact.
However, it has to be appreciated that it was beyond the capacity of the resource starved country to take due care of over 24% of the population that lives below the poverty line.
Recently, the government announced a substantial increase in the allocations for poverty alleviation measures under Ehsaas Programme, the Poverty Alleviation Fund and Baitul Maal under which 12 million households all over the country will be covered but still the cash grants and other dimensions of the programme are not adequate enough to take care of the needy people.
In this backdrop, the launching of the programme Khair Khawa is a step in the right direction but it can produce the desired results only if well-to-do people come forward and adopt families so as to take them out of the vicious cycle of poverty on a permanent basis.
At the same time, there is also a need to create greater awareness about family planning in view of the rapidly increasing population of the country as it has become one of the major hurdles in the way of improving standard of living.
