Details of mentally disabled kids to be included in NSER

Islamabad: To give special attention to the families with persons with disability (PWDs), the resurvey of Benazir Income Support Programme’s (BISP) National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) will also include details of mentally disabled children in a family. 

The information to this effect was shared with the a joint delegation of World Health Organisation (WHO), Human Development Research Foundation, Mental Health Innovation Network (MHIN) and Overseas Development Institute which called on Minister of State and Chairperson BISP Marvi Memon on Thursday.

The purpose of the meeting was to find the common denominator among the organisations so that concerted efforts may be initiated for the welfare of children with learning disability in the country.

The delegation apprised the BISP chairperson of an initiative undertaken by MHIN with the assistance of WHO for the welfare of mentally challenged children in tehsil Gujar Khan. It was informed that in the pilot phase of the initiative, 70 families of two union councils of Gujar Khan were identified and champion mothers were trained through psycho-social empowerment programmes to mitigate the negative effects of mental disability of the children. Currently, 3,000 families of Gujar Khan have been identified and MHIN with the assistance of other national and international organizations aims to scale up this initiative at national level. For training of champion mothers, tablet based device is used. This initiative focuses on educating disabled children, women empowerment and anti-stigma campaign by utilizing WHO based innovative interventions packages.