Photo: Collected
An initiative has been taken to give a one-off business grant of Tk 20,000 each to 1,472 beneficiaries selected by lottery under the ‘Vulnerable Women Benefit (VWB)’ programme implemented by the Department of Women Affairs under the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.
The grant will be given to these women, selected as part of the baseline and endline surveys of the ‘impact assessment’ of the VWB programme, with the support of the World Food Programme (WFP).
To this end, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs has given approval for verifying the accuracy of their national identity cards (NID) and bKash numbers.
The approval was given in a letter of 30 September signed by Dr Bilkis Begum, deputy secretary of the ministry’s Women and Children Affairs-2 branch.
The letter said the World Food Programme has selected 1,472 VWB beneficiaries from 72 upazilas of 24 districts through a lottery. Their NID and bKash numbers will be verified with a view to giving each of them a one-off Tk 20,000 as a business grant.
Permission has been given to complete the verification of NID and bKash numbers through the upazila women affairs officers concerned. After the verification, the process of giving the grant money to the selected beneficiaries will be taken forward.
Following the ministry’s approval, the VWB section of the Department of Women Affairs has asked those concerned, including the deputy commissioners and upazila nirbahi officers concerned, to take the necessary measures.
Those concerned were informed of this in another letter of 5 October signed by Rebeka Sultana, deputy director (VWB) of the department.
In that letter, the additional secretary of the programme wing, the joint secretary of the programme branch, the deputy secretary of the WCA-2 section of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, the deputy commissioners, the upazila nirbahi officers and the officials concerned of the offices of the director general and director of the Department of Women Affairs have been informed.
At the same time, the programme policy officer of the World Food Programme’s Dhaka office has also been informed of the matter.
Sources concerned said the business grant initiative is aimed at making the women selected under VWB financially self-reliant and engaging them in income-generating activities. It is hoped that this one-off grant of Tk 20,000 will help increase the economic capacity of the beneficiaries through investment in small businesses or income-earning work.
Source: BSS
