Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
265
years and this trend can be attributed, in part, to the stipends550 provided to girls to attend
school. The Girls Stipend Programme has three different streams 551 (i) the provision of a
monthly stipend to girls enrolled in grades 6 to 10, in two instalments, reaching over 400,000
girls in 2013-2014. (ii) the provision of significantly higher levels of stipends (1,500-2,000
rupees versus 200 rupees of the regular scheme) in two districts for girls enrolled in grades 1 to
10, and 6 to 10 in the second district. Those districts are at a particular geographical
disadvantage with a lack of proper education facilities. (iii) in 2013-2014 a special stipend was
provided as incentive for girls in primary schools in seven districts with a particularly low net
enrolment rate.
National level initiative
Beyond these examples of stipends at the provincial or district level, a major national level social
protection scheme is the Benazir Income Support Program .
Box 1 Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP)
Goal. In the short-term, provide a cushion to adverse impacts of food, fuel and the financial crisis
on the poor. In the long term, the programme aims at providing a minimum income support
package to the poorest and to those most vulnerable to future shocks.
Why. Launched in 2008, it is the country’s flagship national safety net programme. Recognizing
that the existing instruments (Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal and Zakat) had limited coverage and were
poorly targeted, BISP provides predictable income support through unconditional cash transfers
to more than 5.2 million families552 .
How. The transfer is delivered quarterly, with the vast majority of beneficiaries receiving cash
through a BISP Debit Card. By providing access to Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC)
and making BISP payments to the female head of beneficiary households, the BISP made explicit
the goal of empowering women, which is complemented by the creation of BISP Beneficiary
Committees (BBC) that provide a forum for beneficiaries.
Direct link to education. Unconditional income support is likely to support access to school by
children in the beneficiary households by alleviating the financial constraints and decreasing
incentives for child labour or other negative coping mechanisms. However, with a variety of
building blocks of safety nets, BISP has evolved into a national platform for the provisions of a
series of targeted services to the poor. One example of an additional ‘top up’ programme is the
“Co-responsibility Cash Transfer” CCT programme which started in 2012 and linked transfers to
primary school education of the beneficiaries’ children 553. More than 1.3 million children have been
enrolled in the programme and nearly 50% are girls.
550
551
552
553