It was sorely a sordid state for Arati Dey, who became a widowed at the age of 47 after the loss of her husband in a tragic road accident. The sudden death of her husband in 2017 put Arati in a great peril as fear and hurdles made her face shocks making it almost impossible for her to maintain her five-member family.
As she was struggling to scarcely run her family taking up the job of a day labourer, a well-wisher of Arati discussed with her about the benefits of the Social Safety Net programmes of the government. Driven by a great hope of ridding herself of woes, she went to the local union parishad chairman with all documents. The chairman came to the rescue of the poverty-stricken Arati and helped her include into the social safety net programmes.
Arati is only one of the thousands of beneficiaries of social safety net programmes, launched by the present government making it the first ever all-encompassing effort to mitigate the sufferings of the vulnerable sections of the society.
Like many people-centric beneficial endeavours, the social safety net programmees in Bangladesh have been contributing to the reduction of extreme poverty by addressing a range of population groups through different forms of assistance. These include the provision of income security for the elderly, widows and persons-with-disabilities, generating temporary employment for working age men and women, and supporting the healthy development of young mothers and children.
The government has been implementing 145 programmes under the social safety net initiative of different ministries. People have escaped extreme poverty because of the social safety net, providing clear evidence that the social safety net programmes are making a substantial impact in the country’s fight against poverty.
