78 percent of Ehsaas digital survey completed: Dr Sania Nishtar

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Social Security and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar on Friday said that Ehsaas digital survey would cover each corner of the country till June 2021 for precise identification of the poor, under the umbrella of Ehsaas Programme.

"Over 78 per cent of Ehsaas Programme digital survey has been completed until now to enrol the underprivileged people to bring them under a social safety net," she said in an interview with PTV news channel.

The SAPM promised that the process of Ehsaas digital survey would be impartial and based on merit without any political influence, as per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan. She urged the media to play its role in creating mass awareness about the survey, adding that enrolment of new beneficiaries was dependent on the data from the new survey.

About one-window facility for deserving under the Ehsaas Programme, she said the operation would be inaugurated this year, adding that the Centre would facilitate beneficiaries to get information on all Ehsaas benefits and services available to them at one place. The first ‘One Window Ehsaas Centre’ was being opened in Islamabad, which would be a one-stop-shop that would integrate all Ehsaas programmes under one roof, she added.

The SAPM said one-window operation centres would also be set up in other major cities, which would assist the beneficiaries of the Ehsaas Programme, besides reducing the chances of duplication. She said the Ehsaas Programme was the flagship poverty alleviation initiative of the government under the vision of PM Imran Khan, which was bringing a positive change in the lives of poor and deserving people.

She said the government had launched more than 140 programs, policies and initiative for 14 different categories of masses under the Ehsaas Programme including extreme poor, orphans, widows, the homeless, jobless, poor farmers, labourers, the sick, who risk medical impoverishment, the undernourished, students from low-income backgrounds and poor women and elderly citizens.

She said that the prime minister only wanted every person in the country to sleep well-fed and under a shelter, adding that the premier had launched various programmes of ‘panahgahs’ [shelter homes] and ‘Koi Bhokha Na Soye’ [No one should sleep hungry] for the homeless, that have now been opened across the country. The government was putting in its maximum efforts and resources to bring a positive change in society and ensure welfare of the poor, she added.