KARACHI: The Benazir Income Support Programme is a big example of what not to do when it comes to providing benefits to the poor. The programme was started to gain political benefits and at present suffering through lack of planning and criteria, former secretary of education with the Sindh government Mehtab Akbar Rashdi said during an event held by the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund on Thursday.

The programme was held to discuss the participation of women workers in the field and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals by providing equal opportunities to women and men.

The first part of the programme focused on the issues creating hurdle for a proper pro-poor policy. The second half of the programme was about group work in which participants were asked to work on an action plan.

Quoting examples of the ways to provide opportunities to women, MPA Rashdi spoke about the “wrong policies which brought about the BISP”. She said that there were cases where women in districts and smaller towns of Sindh were reported to have to stand for hours in long queues. “Since most of these women don’t know how to use the ATM card, an agent offering help to them, charges Rs200 each to help them use it. Rather than teaching people to beg, it would be better to teach them a craft or two,” she added.

Founder and executive director of the Indus Resource Centre Sadiqa Salahuddin said that there were several issues in the way of women leadership. One of them was lack of education, mobility, training and an enabling environment. She said that teaching women craft would enhance their entrepreneurial skills and that way they would be able to make a living for themselves.

The speakers said that there were various laws to alleviate poverty and dependency but their implementation remained a big issue.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2016