By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: The government will provide assistance to around three million people, who have been affected due to the ongoing lockdown imposed in the country to curb the spread of coronavirus, under the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme.
Those individuals having income up to Rs 20,000 and are facing unemployment and financial problems after lockdown will be helped under the Ehsaas Programme through the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER).
An SMS campaign would be launched within two weeks to include the affected people in the Emergency Cash Programme who were not registered under the NSER. The applications received through SMS would be scrutinized by the district administrations concerned. Around 2.5 million affectees would be included in the programme through the SMS campaign, the tweet said.
It may be mentioned that the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme has been approved for giving cash assistance to 10 million affectees, especially daily wage earners. The programme will benefit a total of 67 million people (given the household size). About Rs 12,000 will be given to each family as per decision.
Under the programme, 4.5 million existing Ehsaas Kafaalat beneficiaries (all women) already getting Rs. 2,000 will also get extra Rs 1,000 emergency relief for the next four months. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, Dr Sania Nishtar will do a press conference soon to explain how the “Ehsaas Emergency Cash and SMS program†will be implemented.
