Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety Shazia Marri inaugurated a Benazir Nashonuma Centre under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) at the Sindh Government Hospital in Shah Faisal No.1 Colony on Monday.
She inspected the centre established for the protection of the health of pregnant women and newborns and also interacted with BISP beneficiaries. Assuring them of her wholehearted support, Marri stressed the importance of preventing stunting by targeting the prevalent issue of malnutrition in women and children.
Addressing the media, she mentioned that there are 364 Nashonuma centres in 139 districts of Pakistan. “BISP started this pilot project in 2016, which was initially limited to 15 districts, but now it is functional all over Pakistan.”
Stunting in children and malnutrition of mothers have an adverse impact on the GDP and human capital development, he said, adding that a multi-pronged strategy has been adopted by the BISP, in collaboration with the World Food Programme, the Peoples Primary Healthcare Initiative Sindh, and the federal and Sindh governments to address the issue of malnutrition in women and children.
The federal minister noted that the BISP aimed to target over 1.5 million beneficiaries of this programme belonging to the poorest strata of society. She also mentioned that citizens who are not registered with the BISP but are from Sindh can avail the facilities provided by Benazir Nashonuma Centre.
While thanking the United Nations Food Programme (UNFP) for extending support to Pakistan, Marri said the UNFP was a humanitarian organisation that had been saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.
She said: “Pakistan has been ravaged by unprecedented floods. The government has decided to increase the flood relief assistance under Benazir Income Support Programme from the existing Rs28 billion to Rs70 billion.” Answering a question, she said Pakistan was going through a rough patch and it was because of the disastrous policies of the previous government; however, she said, every cloud had a silver lining to it and this government had been making the best possible efforts to bring Pakistan back on the right track.