People will check Ehsaas facilities thru mobile app

The government has planned to launch the Ehsaas App to educate the common people as well as beneficiaries about the facilities they can avail under the pro-poor initiatives of the Ehsaas programme.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar said that this mobile application would be launched mainly for educating citizens about different schemes of multi-pronged Ehsaas programme.

She said that the programme is aimed at reducing inequalities, invest in people and lift lagging district. Through Ehsaas App, the citizens would be able to get first-hand information about all the programmes and facilities being offered under the umbrella of the Ehsaas programme run by the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division.

She said that the Ehsaas programme is the combination of different initiatives which is targeting welfare of widows, elderly, overseas, labour, students, farmers, residents of slum areas and many others to improve their lives. She said that the Ehsaas digital payment mechanism with biometric verification is in place now for the BISP beneficiaries to minimize the chances of identity theft and fraudulent withdrawals.

HACKATHON ON MALNUTRITION

Recently, Dr Sania Nishtar said that millions of children in Pakistan are suffering from health complications and that is why it is among the top priority areas of the Ehsaas poverty alleviation programme. She said that Facebook is a powerful tool to deliver the message across the board on stunting, obesity and chronic diseases which are closely interlinked.

“We are not paying a single penny to Facebook for such digital campaigns. It is the beginning of a long journey,” she said, The Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division, in partnership with Facebook and Invest2Innovate, has launched the first-of-its-kind design Hackathon on Malnutrition at the National Incubation Centre in Islamabad.