Our Correspondent
Chakwal
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Sania Nishtar on Thursday visited Choa Saiden Sahah and Kallar Kahar areas in Chakwal together with Secretary, Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division and senior officials from NADRA to review the quality of services and facilities being established by NADRA at the special purpose counters for self-registration of Ehsaas beneficiaries so that no deserving person is left out from the Ehsaas programme. She took round of facilities provided at the two self-registration sites, met with the staff and people present there and enquired about the current arrangements. Dr. Nishtar took keen interest in getting their feedback as well to improve the entire registration process.
Currently, government has rolled out several social protection and poverty alleviation programmes in the field and many of them are in the pipeline to benefit various segments of the poor and disadvantaged population of Pakistan. In order to identify the right population of beneficiaries for the right Ehsaas interventions, the national socio-economic registry (NSER)-digital survey is underway by BISP to ensure 100 percent coverage of the population. The survey will be completed this year in three phases.
To ensure utmost transparency in the survey process of Ehsaas programme so that no deserving citizen of Pakistan is left out from the social welfare net, NADRA has committed to mobilize fully equipped self -registration centres in all districts across Pakistan in three phases linked to the completion of survey. In the first phase, NADRA is initiating a self-registration drive by the end of this month beginning with 15 districts across Pakistan including Chakwal where the survey is about to be completed. This self-registration drive will then be counter verified keeping in view the integrity and transparency of the programme through data analytics. This self-registration drive is linked to the launch of the Ehsaas Kifalat programme in the last week of January 2020. Ehsass’ Kifalat is the Government’s safety net programme through which it will give cash stipends to 7 million most deserving and poorest women all over the country.
During the visit, Dr. Nishtar also met with dwellers of slums residing in the impoverished suburbs of Chakwal. As conversations unfolded, she discussed about the status of registrations of dwelling families with NADRA database and their accessibility to channels and sources of information locally available to them so that Ehsaas could extend maximum benefits to the most deserving. “Particularly, Ehsaas is trying to do its best to ensure the inclusion of disadvantaged in the social safety net and to improve their access to all the windows of opportunities created for them by Ehsaas.
Continuing the point, she elaborated, “The registration of the vulnerable and impoverished with NADRA and NSER is the foremost priority of Ehsaas as it is the prerequisite to benefit from Ehsaas social protection programme”. Later, Dr. Nishtar visited the Basic Health Unit in Khairpur area of Chakwal. She appreciated the services provided to the local communities at the unit and spoke to the staff and patients. She also took round of the labour room, ward, emergency room, EPI room and dispensary. She was told that average OPD at the facility is 40 patients.
Furthermore, the delegation led by SAPM also visited the BISP Tehsil offices in Choa Saiden Shah and Kallar Kahar. It was discussed that BISP Tehsil offices, wherever located at accessible points will also facilitate NADRA in the Ehsaas self-registration drive.
