Poor groups get more support

The government has been implementing a wide range of rehabilitation, social protection and employment programmes to improve the living standards of the country’s ultra-poor and disadvantaged people, Social Welfare Minister Abu Zafar Md. Zahid Hossain told Parliament on Tuesday.

Replying to a written question from opposition lawmaker Md Moktar Ali (Jashore-6), the minister said the Ministry of Social Welfare had undertaken multiple initiatives to rehabilitate vulnerable people and integrate them into the country’s development process.

The minister said the Rural Social Services (RSS) Programme was supporting landless and poor rural people by promoting social awareness and engaging them in income-generating activities.

The programme also focuses on maternal and child healthcare, sanitation, primary education, literacy, support for orphans and vulnerable groups, family planning, and campaigns against child marriage, polygamy, dowry and trafficking in women and children.

He said the Rural Mothers’ Centre (RMC) Programme was helping disadvantaged and low-income rural women become economically independent by organising them into groups, encouraging savings and providing market-oriented vocational training.

The training covers bamboo and cane crafts, embroidery, cattle fattening, fish farming, nursery management, poultry rearing, jute products, Nakshi Kantha, wooden handicrafts, net weaving and small business management.

The minister said the Urban Community Development (UCD) Programme was currently operating through 80 Urban Social Services offices across all city corporations and district headquarters.

He said the programme seeks to improve the socio-economic conditions of disadvantaged urban communities through community mobilisation, coordination with government and non-government organisations, skills development, interest-free microcredit and other social development initiatives.

Highlighting support for burn survivors and persons with disabilities, Zahid Hossain said the Department of Social Services had been implementing a rehabilitation programme since the 2002-03 fiscal year.

The initiative provides treatment, vocational training and interest-free microcredit through 575 offices, including 495 upazila offices and 80 urban social services offices.

Eligible beneficiaries living below the poverty line are identified through household surveys and receive interest-free loans ranging from Tk 5,000 to Tk 50,000 to undertake income-generating activities, he added.

The minister said the government was implementing a broad range of social safety net programmes at the upazila level, including old-age allowances, benefits for widowed and destitute women, disability allowances, education stipends for students with disabilities, development programmes for Bede, Hijra and tea worker communities, financial assistance for patients suffering from cancer, kidney disease, liver cirrhosis, stroke-related paralysis, congenital heart disease and thalassaemia, rehabilitation and alternative employment for beggars, livelihood programmes for marginalised communities, hospital social services and grants for private orphanages.

On employment generation, he said the government was implementing practical and demand-driven programmes through the Department of Social Services to equip unemployed young people with skills and create sustainable jobs.

Under the Urban Social Services Programme, unemployed youths receive interest-free loans of Tk 10,000 to Tk 50,000 to establish businesses and startups, while those completing skills training become eligible for loans of up to Tk 100,000.

The minister also said two socio-economic training centres, established in 1973 at Mirpur in Dhaka and Shalbon in Rangpur, continued to enhance women’s employability and economic empowerment.

The centres provide vocational training in leather goods manufacturing, block and batik printing, flower making, knitting, doll making, tailoring, embroidery, beauty care, garment production, and bamboo and cane crafts, enabling women from low- and middle-income families to increase household incomes and become self-reliant.

The minister said the government’s long-term objective was to create sustainable employment opportunities for educated unemployed youths so they could become self-reliant rather than depend on social allowances, while contributing to the country’s economic growth and social development.