City Desk :
Struggle in life is not new for octogenarian Nabiran Nesa as she has been fighting against poverty after her husband died leaving her along with three minor children without any wealth. Moreover, the elderly Nabiran’s misery has taken a turn as her three sons got married and started living with their spouses separately. Now she is living with her two grandsons after the wife of her elder son died. “It is really hard to manage my living expenses as my family is now running with the income of my two carpenter grandsons,” said Nabiran, living in Torgubra village under Gopalganj district.
“But the government’s old age allowance programme gives me a new hope of survival as I am getting Taka 500 per month, thanks to the government,” she added.
Nabiran said the programme is a good initiative of the government since it is very helpful for the poor and helpless women like her. “The amount of Taka 500 is not much, but we can use it for buying the medicine, I take daily, and other essential commodities,” she said. Like Nabiran Nesa, many old, widow women and poor girl students across the country are welcoming the government’s pro-poor initiatives. Talking to media, a senior official of the Civil Registration and Social Security Branch in the Cabinet Division said the constitutional provision, economic capacity and overall the developmental commitment of the present government has paved the way for formulating a National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) of Bangladesh.
The strategy aims to address the triple problems of poverty, vulnerability and marginalization, he added.
To ensure smooth implementation of NSSS, he said, the government has formulated an action plan on the basis of detailed stakeholder consultation and on consideration of ground realities.
The official said the action plan is prepared for five years till 2021, when most of the major reform proposals of the NSSS are expected to be attained. “Over the next five years after 2021, the reform initiatives will be continued before making transition to a lifecycle-centric social security system mainly coordinated by the Social Welfare Ministry,” he added. For formulating the action plan, he said, a diagnostic study carried out by the Social Security Policy Support (SSPS) programme which was found that women and men are not only affected by the same social and economic risks differently, but women also face different types of risks and vulnerabilities.
“Women face additional disadvantages due to gender based discrimination and deprivation,” he added. The official said the National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) action plan puts much emphasis on the issue of women empowerment with the objective of achieving better equity and social justice. Based on the policy guidelines of the NSSS and pursuant to a series of action plan workshops, he said the NSSS action plan incorporates the some activities to address gender issues in social security. The social security programmes are Strengthen Supports for Vulnerable Women, Introduce Child Benefit Programme (allowance to be disbursed to be disbursed to female parents preferentially) Programme, Introduce Vulnerable Women’s Benefit Programme, Workplace Childcare Services, Child Maintenance Payments, Maternal Health Care, Maternity Insurance, Scale up SWAPNO (strengthening women’s ability for productive new opportunities) project, Scale up ‘One House-One Farm’ progrmme, Strengthen Social Allowance (financial support or assistance or benefits) for the migrant workers and their family members (particularly women) and Skill Development Programme for Young Men and Women.
Struggle in life is not new for octogenarian Nabiran Nesa as she has been fighting against poverty after her husband died leaving her along with three minor children without any wealth. Moreover, the elderly Nabiran’s misery has taken a turn as her three sons got married and started living with their spouses separately. Now she is living with her two grandsons after the wife of her elder son died. “It is really hard to manage my living expenses as my family is now running with the income of my two carpenter grandsons,” said Nabiran, living in Torgubra village under Gopalganj district.
“But the government’s old age allowance programme gives me a new hope of survival as I am getting Taka 500 per month, thanks to the government,” she added.
Nabiran said the programme is a good initiative of the government since it is very helpful for the poor and helpless women like her. “The amount of Taka 500 is not much, but we can use it for buying the medicine, I take daily, and other essential commodities,” she said. Like Nabiran Nesa, many old, widow women and poor girl students across the country are welcoming the government’s pro-poor initiatives. Talking to media, a senior official of the Civil Registration and Social Security Branch in the Cabinet Division said the constitutional provision, economic capacity and overall the developmental commitment of the present government has paved the way for formulating a National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) of Bangladesh.
The strategy aims to address the triple problems of poverty, vulnerability and marginalization, he added.
To ensure smooth implementation of NSSS, he said, the government has formulated an action plan on the basis of detailed stakeholder consultation and on consideration of ground realities.
The official said the action plan is prepared for five years till 2021, when most of the major reform proposals of the NSSS are expected to be attained. “Over the next five years after 2021, the reform initiatives will be continued before making transition to a lifecycle-centric social security system mainly coordinated by the Social Welfare Ministry,” he added. For formulating the action plan, he said, a diagnostic study carried out by the Social Security Policy Support (SSPS) programme which was found that women and men are not only affected by the same social and economic risks differently, but women also face different types of risks and vulnerabilities.
“Women face additional disadvantages due to gender based discrimination and deprivation,” he added. The official said the National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) action plan puts much emphasis on the issue of women empowerment with the objective of achieving better equity and social justice. Based on the policy guidelines of the NSSS and pursuant to a series of action plan workshops, he said the NSSS action plan incorporates the some activities to address gender issues in social security. The social security programmes are Strengthen Supports for Vulnerable Women, Introduce Child Benefit Programme (allowance to be disbursed to be disbursed to female parents preferentially) Programme, Introduce Vulnerable Women’s Benefit Programme, Workplace Childcare Services, Child Maintenance Payments, Maternal Health Care, Maternity Insurance, Scale up SWAPNO (strengthening women’s ability for productive new opportunities) project, Scale up ‘One House-One Farm’ progrmme, Strengthen Social Allowance (financial support or assistance or benefits) for the migrant workers and their family members (particularly women) and Skill Development Programme for Young Men and Women.
