A news report on Tuesday said that the government is going to discard its plan to bring all elderly poor under its social safety net programmes in 100 more upazilas with a lame excuse what it called to prevent the non-poor from misusing the facility. However, the cabinet committee on social safety net had earlier decided to provide the support to more such people under three major safety net programmes. They include old-age allowance, the allowance for widows, deserted and destitute women, and the insolvent disabled person allowance. If implemented, more than nine lakh new beneficiaries would come under the schemes, and an additional Tk 550 crore would be needed to fund the initiatives.
Economists and experts think, since the national budget for fiscal year 2022-23 is going to be placed tomorrow (Thursday), it is expected that the issue of social safety net programmes will figure prominently, putting in place measures to make them more effective in an inclusive and expanded format. The scheme, introduced in FY 21 in 112 most poverty-stricken upazilas of the country to support the elderly poor, should also address additional groups comprising the new elderly poor — rendered so by the pandemic. Besides, they have also been hit hard by higher prices of basic essentials due to a spike in inflation caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and supply disruptions. The experts, however, called for eliminating the non-poor from the list of the beneficiaries under the old-age allowance scheme, if any.
Presently, the number of elderly people aged 62 and above, according to a survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, is about 1.14 crore in the country. The allegations against UP members and local officials must be investigated. Beyond that, there should be full transparency in the selection process of safety net programmes, particularly the targeted beneficiaries to ensure accountability and success.
On the advice of the bureaucratese text book good policies are announced but implementation is not ensured. Benefits go for the corrupt ones. So lying and bluffing the people goes on unchecked. The government has no fear of free elections so public grievances do not matter.
The government that cannot ensure a policy it cannot be said we have a competent government.
