Women benefit from mobile transfer of social security allowances

Poor and expectant pregnant women now receive their allowances under the social safety net programme through mobile phone. This has cut down on the hassles they had to face before. However, there are still certain challenges in receiving this digital payment. While the allowance is very small, there are certain fraudsters ready to cheat the beneficiaries of their money. The beneficiaries need to be tech savvy enough to avoid such scams. These matters were raised on Thursday at a roundtable organised at the Prothom Alo office in Kawran Bazar of the capital city.

The roundtable on 'Providing social security allowance: Use of digital methods', was organised by Prothom Alo with support from World Vision Bangladesh and USAID.

At the meeting, deputy secretary of the prime minister's office (governance innovation unit), Md Munirul Islam, said the government is pledge-bound to improve the living standards of the backward population and also to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). He said that the social safety allowance was a major tool for poverty alleviation. The allowance can now reach people in a short span of time.

Director of the Institute of Public Health Nutrition Md Khalilur Rahman said that if poor and expectant mothers were provided with nutrition-related support, the health and education of the next generation can be ensured. He said that investing one taka in the mothers provided with nutrition advice and assistance, would reap benefits 20 fold in future.

At the roundtable it was said that World Vision Bangladesh was implementing 'Nabajatra', a project for poor and expectant mothers. A modern MIS (Management Information System) has been created in this regard.

Speaking at the meeting, homemaker from Shyamnagar, Tumpa Debnath, said it had been a hassle to collect the allowance before, but now they could pick up the money from the nearby mobile banking agents.

Digital development advisor of USAID, Mohammed Aminul Huq Chowdhury, said that according to a survey, a beneficiary spent 14 per cent of the allowance on transport and collecting the money. Through the digital system, there was no such expense.

Director of mPower (innovation) Zaki Haider said, many of these women were victims of various scams. They need to be given training in protecting their PIN numbers and in scaling up their awareness.

Chief external and corporate affairs officer Sheikh Md Munirul Islam of BKash said, that advantage was taken of the beneficiaries emotions. Women and other persons of the marginal section in society needed to be made more aware in order to avoid being cheated.

Senior programme and policy officer Masing Newar of the World Food Programme said it is also important to determine who are receiving benefits under the social safety programme.

Team leader of the British development agency DFID's 'strengthening public financial management for social protection project', Siddiqur Rahman Chowdhury, said that digital transactions take the government money directly to the people without any obstruction. It also increases the financial management of the marginal people.

The task of improving the living standards of the marginal population and enlisting the beneficiaries was not easy, said World Vision International's Nabajatra project chief of party Rakesh Patel. He said that the project provided services for 886,116 beneficiaries.

Prothom Alo associate editor Abdul Quayyum presented the opening remarks at the roundtable which was moderated by assistant editor Firoz Chowdhury.