Needing Budget Reconciliation for Maternity Allowance

“Every month I have to go to the field office! Otherwise it feels like I am not doing my job. The budget is ahead.

What are grassroots people thinking? I have been thinking about it for a few days; I will go to the village and find out.

There is no alternative to production. The main goal of marginal communities is to have a dignified income.

Who is making the budget and who is benefiting from it—there is no time to think about these things. No discussion was held about the local budget at the union level this time! However, in big hotels in Dhaka, there has been a lot of discussion about it! After many days, I visited Gopalpurin Tangail and the unions of Hem Nagar and Jhawail.

It seemed to me that poverty has reduced, but the poor have increased. Poverty reduction will be a major `challenge’ for the new government.”

This comment has taken from a Facebook post 4thJune 2026 by Mr. Mohammad Zobair Hasan, Deputy Executive Director, DORP and Member Secretary of International Water Association (IWA) based on his two and a half decades of field experience and applied research.

To address this “challenge,” the present government has started a practical initiative to integrate all national social security programs into a family-card-based budget system.

In the proposed 2026–27 fiscal budget, it has been suggested that under the Mother and Child Support Program (maternity allowance), 1.895 million mothers and children will receive a monthly allowance of 850 taka for a period of 3 years.

According to this proposal, each union would have an average of 412 beneficiaries, costing about 161 crore taka per month. We welcome this challenging initiative.

There are currently about 4,600 union councils in Bangladesh. Based on field experience and the 7 eligibility criteria for maternity allowance, each union would realistically have around 70 truly eligible poor pregnant mothers.

This means about 342 additional beneficiaries per union are being included beyond the eligible group.

According to this calculation, the total number of eligible mothers nationwide would be about 322,000. That means there are about 1,573,000 additional beneficiaries beyond eligibility.

If calculated accordingly, each mother could receive 5,000 taka per month over 3 years. Alternatively, if extended to 5 years, each mother could receive 3,000 taka per month.

In comparison, the minimum wage of a garment worker in Bangladesh is 8,000 taka per month. In that context, providing 5,000 taka monthly support to a pregnant poor mother is not unrealistic.

Considering expenses for nutrition, healthcare, transport, medicine, and newborn care, 850 taka is very low. A more realistic support would be around 5,000 taka.

The first five years of a child’s life are the most important for physical, mental, cognitive, and cultural development. Therefore, the duration of conditional support can be extended from 3 years to 5 years.
If implemented, families could receive health, nutrition, and education cards.

School enrollment conditions could ensure children’s inclusion in education, nutrition, and health services, preventing dropout and helping achieve universal education goals.

Without such changes, the additional 1.573 million mothers included beyond eligibility would increase financial burden and weaken the structured poverty alleviation system. It may negatively affect the country’s development planning.

It is mentioned that adjustments to the proposed 2026 budget are still ongoing under the Honorable Finance Minister.

Since 2005–06, maternity allowances for poor mothers have been in place. After a long time, the program name was changed to “Mother and Child Support Program.”

However, “mother” and “maternity” are not the same. Therefore, we request that the original name “Maternity and Child Support Program” be restored.

The government is requested to review the number of beneficiaries, allowance amount, and duration of the program again.

Finally, a simplified budget summary is presented:
1. Monthly allocation of 161 crore taka (19.32 billion per year) should be maintained. We welcome again.
2. Each union should have 70 mothers as beneficiaries.
3. Monthly allowance should be either:
o 5,000 taka for 3 years, or
o 3,000 taka for 5 years.
4. The program name should be changed back to “Maternity and Child Support Program” instead of “Mother and Child Support Program.”

Without emotion or dreams, nothing can be created. Based on this vision, the proposed “Family Card” program of Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh Government Mr. Tarique Rahman may becomes a strong foundation for implementation.

If health, nutrition, population control, education, housing, employment, environment and social security are integrated under a single Family Card umbrella, it could help build more equal, prosperous, and self-reliant Bangladesh.

May Allah help us.