As part of the Prime Minister’s special initiative for brining all homeless people under housing facilities, the government has so far rehabilitated 1,43,692 homeless families under the Ashrayan project across the country.
“The Ashrayan project under the Prime Minister’s Office is working to alleviate poverty of the landless and homeless families by focusing on human resource development,” Abul Kalam Shamsuddin, Project Director of Ashrayan-2 Project told journalist on Sunday.
He said the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would rehabilitate all the homeless families and make them income generating forces, adding, “Ashrayan provides 14 days’ training to at least two members of the targeted families for making them income generating forces.”
Under the Ashrayan project, the government has decided to rehabilitate 2.10 lakh homeless families by June, 2019 through the ongoing Ashrayan project with own finance.
The project director said the Ashrayan-2 project would build houses for 1.70 lakh poor families on their land, as it is working directly to uphold human rights of the targeted people through improving their living, education, health and opening their earning opportunities.
One member from each trained family would be given a one-time loan of Taka 10,000 for launching own income generation activities, he said.
According to the project details, the Ashrayan-2 project rehabilitated 43,000 out of 50,000 homeless and landless families from July 2010 to May 2017 and rest of the families would be brought under housing facility soon.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, during her 1996-2001 governance period, initiated the Ashrayan project aimed at bringing all homeless and landless people under home facility.
In this way, the government rehabilitated 47,210 homeless families during the 1996-2001 period while Ashrayan project (Phase-2) rehabilitated 58,703 families in 2010, the project details said.
Besides, the government is providing training to ultra poor people, giving interest-free loans and electricity connection to infuse dynamism into the rural life for furthering the socio-economic development as a part of the poverty alleviation campaign.
The project is leading 12 implementing agencies including the Armed Forces Division, the LGED, the Cooperatives Department, the Youth Development Department, Public Works Department, REB, district and upazila administration, Social Welfare Department, Relief and Rehabilitation Department, Forest Department, PDB and union parishads are the coordinating agencies.
