As with other developing countries, Bangladesh’s introduction of social safety net programme to improve the welfare of the vulnerable populations seems contributing as a poverty-reduction instrument as the poor-centric initiative of the present government has been mitigating woes of the poor.
The core rationale of initiation of the social safety net lies in deriving benefits to hundreds of millions of helpless populations, enkindling their hope for a better life. Fifty-one-year old Rafiza Khanam is a beneficiary of the social net initiative as she now lives a modest living after losing her husband in a heart attack a year back. The sudden death of her husband= Hashem Mian- put Rafiza in a dire hardship as she was at a loss as to what to do to run her seven-member family.
After the death of her rickshaw-puller husband, Rafiza confronted an arduous life struggle working as a domestic help at a house in Bilchari village of Chawakaria upazila in Chattogram.
But, her meagre earning could not salvage her from falling prey to abject poverty as she was facing a lot of problems to run her family. Finding no other alternative, Rafiza was frantically searching for a recovery path. She came to know about the Social Safety Net programme of the government and one of her relatives took Rafiza to the local union parishad chairman with all documents. The chairman was kind enough to help the vulnerable woman get the benefit of the programme.
Rafiza is one of lakhs of beneficiaries of social safety net programs in Bangladesh that have been contributing to the reduction of poverty and vulnerability by addressing a range of population groups through different forms of assistance. These include 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. Credited with introducing the social safety net for the first time in fiscal year 1996-97, the Awami League government has been implementing 145 programmes under the social safety net initiative of different ministries. Seeing the social safety net programmes effectively supporting the poor and the vulnerable people in meeting their basic living standard, the government has embarked on plans to bring in more people under the initiative, including all disabled people. The programme looks to share the gains of the higher economic growth clocked in recent years with a larger section of the underprivileged in the society.
The government has allocated Taka 95,574 crore for the social safety net programmes, which is 16.83 percent of total budget and 3.01 percent of GDP in the fiscal year 2020-21. In last year’s revised budget, the allocation was Taka 81,865 crore. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, in the last budget speech, said, “We have been increasing the allocation in the social security sector every year to improve the lives of the poor. By now, about one-fourth of families in the country have been brought under the social security programme.”
Economist and also a former adviser to the caretaker government Hossain Zillur Rahman said if civil pension is excluded from the social safety net then it would be around 1.5 to 1.6 percent of total GDP.
“Due to the pandemic, the number of urban poor has increased and they should be included in the social safety net programme. Specific programme is needed for the new poor,” he said.
Now, the government is providing old-age allowance, widow allowance, allowance for divorced women, disabled allowance, distressed women allowance, poor pregnant women’s allowance, and remuneration for financially insolvent freedom fighters.
Besides, the government has been carrying out programmes of Vulnerable Group Development (VGD), Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF), Test Relief (TR) and Food for Work programme to aid the disadvantaged people.
Expressing his satisfaction over the effectiveness of the social safety net programme, Social Welfare Minister Nuruzzman Ahmed has said currently the number of beneficiaries, who are receiving various allowances and relief goods, has stood at 80 lakh.
Nearly Taka 26.50 crore, including allowance in advance, were distributed among 80.09 lakh beneficiaries at the district and upazila levels till last June under the social safety net programme in the wake of the COVID-19 situation.
The beneficiaries included elderly people, women tortured by husbands, widows, orphans, underprivileged children, insolvent disabled people, students with disabilities, tea workers, the people suffering from various diseases, bede (gypsy) and hijra (third gender) communities.
Of them, 1,02,736 people received the special assistance in Chattogram division, 87,932 in Dhaka division, 22,994 in Rangpur division, 15,7000 in Barishal division, 12,583 in Khulna division, 11,123 in Rajshahi division, 5,574 in Mymensingh division and 5,286 in Sylhet division and 12,745 in Dhaka city.
According to World Bank (WB), Bangladesh’s safety net programmes have shown to be effective at reducing poverty and improving gender outcomes. Despite Bangladesh’s remarkable progress in lifting 16 million people out of poverty in the past decade, to support the poor and vulnerable, the government of Bangladesh implements a number of public social safety net programmes.
With a note of appreciation for introduction of people-centric socio-economic programmes, human rights activist Advocate Monowara Haque said Bangladesh is on the track of development highway under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s leadership. Her stewardship in bringing about magical change in the development landscape has been helping Bangladesh towards achieving the goal of becoming a middle-income country by 2021 and a developed one by 2041.
If social safety nets are a milestone on the route to a developed state, Bangladesh needs to maintain the momentum as stronger safety nets would ensure a fairer distribution of benefits of growth.
