NSER Vital For Designing Welfare Programmes: Marvi

SUKKUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Oct, 2016 ) : Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Chairperson Marvi Memon Saturday said the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) was vital for designing welfare programmes.

The updated data would play a pivotal role in planning and designing development programmes on financial assistance, vocational trainings, micro-finance, education and health by different government departments, besides BISP, she said his during her visit to Sukkur and Naseerabad for launching of registration desks set up for BISP's new poverty survey.

Ms Marvi said that new poverty survey for NSER update would be conducted in each and every corner of the country registering all households against certain socio-economic indicators. She said the BISP would make all-out efforts to document the best socio-economic registry available in the world.

To overcome the inclusion and exclusion errors, the BISP had adopted CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviews) instead of PAPI (Paper Assisted Personal Interviews), she added. The authenticity of the survey, she said, would be verified through Operation Review Firms that were being procured through a competitive and transparent process.

The BISP Chairperson inspected the registration centers and interacted with people for their feedback. She instructed the officials to facilitate the people in registration process.

She also informed people to contact BISP in case of any complaint at hotline no 0800-26477.

She reiterated that the support from the local government in terms of logistics, security and social mobilization was critical for the efficient and timely completion of the resurvey. For the resurvey, Poverty Scorecard has been revised and two approaches of resurvey like desk approach and door to door approach have been adopted so that no deserving family is missed out, she added.

The 12 other districts of pilot phase where door to door approach would be adopted include Jacobabad, Thatha, Mohmand Agency, Gilgit, Mirpur, Layyah, Chakwal, Faisalabad, Kech, Qila Saifullah, Lakki Marwat and Charsadda, she maintained.

It may be mentioned here that the pilot phase of new poverty survey of BISP will cover 16 districts across Pakistan. It started from Haripur in June 2016 followed by Bahawalpur in September 2016 and Sukkur and Naseerabad in October 2016.

Desk approach is being adopted in these districts. In Sukkur, 113 counters have been setup in 36 centers for expected case load of 1,74,851 households whereas in Naseerabad 18 counters have been installed in 10 centers for expected caseload of 30,532 households. Till date, 4,683 households in Sukkur and 1,781 households in Naseerabad have been registered.