As part of the government’s policy to empower women, each of 1.04 million distressed and destitute women across the country are to get 30kg of nutritious rice per month under the Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) program, reports BSS.
“We are providing skill development training to extreme poor women across the country,” Secretary of Women and Children Affairs Ministry, Kamrun Nahar, said on Thursday.
She said the ministry had distributed 30 kg nutritious rice to each of 2.5m distressed women across the country for two years from 2014-15 to June 2018 financial year.
According to the ministry’s information, the government is providing maternity allowance to 7,00,000 poor mothers under a three-year program, and each month the mother gets a Tk800 allowance.
Under the program, the government provides 30kg of packaged food (rice) and training services (training, savings, and loans) to extreme poor women.
“We are disbursing a maternity allowance to each beneficiary through the “Government to Person” system, and bank accounts, as part of the digital Bangladesh concept,” the secretary said.
The ministry information said that 250,000 beneficiary mothers are getting T800 per month in financial year 2018-19, while 280,350 beneficiary mothers received Tk500 each month from 2014-15 to June 2018, under the “Working Lactating Mother Assistance Fund Program,” across the country.
The program is being implemented in all city corporations, district and upazila headquarters, and municipalities.
Apart from this, the government is imparting training on individual health and cleanliness, maternal and child health, women empowerment, disaster and risk management, and HIV and AIDS, the ministry sources said.
Secretary Nahar said: “The present government extended the VGD, maternity allowance for poor mothers, and the working lactating mother assistance fund program to bring the extreme poor within sustainable development.”
The government is also providing income generating training to distressed and destitute women to make them self-reliant, including training in raising local chickens and ducks, local cows and goats, and cultivating vegetables.