Poor get the least of safety-net funds
Barisal, Rajshahi and Khulna divisions where poor people live most receive the least safety-net funds whereas Sylhet, Dhaka and Chittagong, which are comparatively good in terms of poverty, receive the lion's share of the funds.
Noticing the discrimination, the finance ministry sits tomorrow to change the existing practice of distributing the safety-net funds.
The east-west divide in terms of economy has been identified as a major obstacle to poverty eradication and economic possibility, says a finance ministry report on social safety-net programmes.
According to the report, 52 percent people in Barisal live below the poverty line, 50.2 percent in Rajshahi and 45.7 percent in Khulna. But Barisal receives only 14.8 percent of the safe-net funds, Rajshahi 22.9 percent and Khulna 15 percent.
Sylhet, where 33.8 percent people live below the poverty line, receives 40.8 percent of the safety-net funds. Dhaka and Chittagong, where 32 and 34 percent people live below the poverty line, receive 19.2 percent and 27.5 percent of the funds.
In five years until 2005, the average poverty rate was reduced to 50 percent from 53 percent in the western region comprising Barisal, Khulna and Rajshahi while it went down to 33 percent from 46 percent in the eastern part comprising Sylhet, Dhaka and Chittagong.
Different safety-net programmes have aimed to achieve a target of about 52 lakh beneficiaries this fiscal year with an increase by 25 lakh from the previous fiscal year.
The 100-day employment programme involving Tk 2,000 crore will bring 20 lakh people under its coverage while three lakh people will become new beneficiaries of the old-age allowance.
"While 5.6 crore of the country's people live below the poverty line, not more than 9 percent can receive benefits of the social safety-net programmes," a finance ministry official told The Daily Star, requesting anonymity.
To work out a strategy for taking benefits of these programmes to the poorest ones, a proposal for forming a committee has been included in the working paper of tomorrow's inter-ministerial meeting.
A proposal for revising the policy to increase coverage to reach out to the poorest in Barisal, Khulna and Rajshahi divisions is also likely to be placed at the meeting.
"While changing the policy, it is necessary to make allocations on the basis of population and poverty rate instead of district- or upazila-wise equal allocation," says the finance ministry report.
There is a proposal for creating a database of the beneficiaries and maintaining their track records.
In running the safety-net programmes, assistance can be taken from the frontline NGOs and development partners whose survey and track records can be of help, said another proposal.
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