ISLAMABAD: The disbursements made through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) have failed to provide social protection to the poorest households, said a study conducted by the Policy Research Institute of Market Economy.
“About 95 per cent of BISP cash grant beneficiary households did not find the grants helpful in meeting their expenditures, while 50pc of the beneficiaries claimed that they have to spend money to get the cash grant,” said the survey-based study, titled “Conditional Cash Transfers: Safety Net or Welfare Trap”, by Fizza Behzad launched yesterday.
It said that instead of raising the living standards of poors, the cash grants are actually increasing their dependence on the government funds.
“The study aims at reviewing the design of BISP, its effect on the private charity, attitudes of programme beneficiaries, focusing on collecting information regarding disbursements, procedural problems, and fulfilment of needs and it examined the impact on the household standard of living,” said Ali Salman, Executive Director of the institute.
The survey was conducted among 1,000 beneficiaries of BISP from Matta (Malakand) and Mirpur and Neelam Valley districts of the AJK.
The study shows that despite the apparently noble intentions of providing social protection to the poor, the conditional cash transfers (through BISP) can serve the exact opposite: by making the poor dependent on continued transfers, and hence, rendering them more vulnerable.
The report recommended that to achieve poverty alleviation, the programme requires restructuring towards long-term and permanent solutions, such as replacing cash grants with programmes through which human capital is enhanced, like vocational trainings and educational programmes.
