The Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) has partnered with the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the implementation of its conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme ‘Waseela e Taleem (WeT)’ – Cluster 1 and Cluster 2. Under the programme, 1,150,000 children between age 4 to 12 of BISP beneficiary families from nine districts and one Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) agency, falling under Cluster 1, and 550,000 children from eight districts of Sindh and Balochistan, placed under Cluster 2, will be registered and of those out-of-school children will be enrolled in local schools. Upon completion of 70 percent attendance by registered children in schools, the BISP beneficiary families will receive cash assistance of Rs. 750 per child per quarter. The payments will be made after quarterly verification of each child’s minimum attendance.
This conditional cash transfer will continue till the child completes his/her primary education.
RSPN has partnered with National Rural Support Programme (NRSP), Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) and Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) to implement Cluster 1 in nine districts – three from Punjab, three from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), one from Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), and two from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) – and one FATA’s Mohmand Agency.
Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO), Thardeep Rural Support Programme (TRDP) and Balochistan Rural Support Programme (BRSP) for the implementation of Cluster 2 in eight districts of Balochistan and Sindh, four from each province.
Main objective of the programme is to “provide conditional assistance to the eligible children of BISP’s Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) scheme’s selected beneficiary families so that they complete primary education in conformity with the permissible compliance parameters including the maximum duration of seven years”.
This programme is a complementary initiative linked to BISP–UCT scheme and aims at contributing to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) – 4, i.e. to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Initiated in October 2012, currently, WeT programme is being implemented in 50 districts including 18 districts of RSPN’s component as shown in two separate maps below.
MSCA is the basis of Wet programme. It underpins maximum possible options i.e. the list of available schools in a particular vicinity or locality enabling both BISP and parents to agree on selection of a most suitable school for a child’s admission. RSPN will conduct MSCA of 9,266 schools (4,877 in Punjab, 3,285 in KP, 122 in GB, 496 in AJK and 486 in FATA) under Cluster 1, and 10,321 schools (8,674 in Sindh and 1,647 in Balochistan) under Cluster 2.
On average 15 BBCs will be fostered into one cluster. It will have membership from BBCs, where each BBC will nominate its representatives for the cluster. Cluster members will discuss issues of BBC members in their regular meetings and directly communicate them to BISP for support. Under the initiative 1,700 clusters (925 in Punjab, 622 in KP, 8 in GB, 69 in AJK and 76 in FATA) will be formed in Cluster 1 areas, and 700 (627 in Sindh and 73 in Balochistan) in Cluster 2 areas.
Through this activity, 1,150,000 children (659,206 in Punjab, 380,856 in KP, 5,038 in GB, 38,872 in AJK and 66,028 in FATA) from Cluster 1 districts, and 550,000 children (490,512 in Sindh and 59,46pokFKiNH52ZK1W64wsWVH1Z2t2gueuTcj2xWWp3QCtAWGhC4m6WsQ7Sou6AtzEzrfTkoPy2ibAyA9vWsdsnRscRcX7bVy is planned in a way that ultimately BISP tehsil offices will take up this activity in the long run, with due facilitation from BISP headquarters, provincial and district offices.
BBCs will be formed through mobilisation of beneficiary families. Objective of this activity is to register beneficiary families with the programme and motivate mothers to send their children to schools instead of engaging them in labour. Also, it will help mothers take stock of their issues related to BISP programme and communicate them through cluster leaders with BISP. Under this initiative, 523,815 BISP families will be mobilised to form 26,000 BBCs (14,516 in Punjab, 9,240 in KP, 1,044 in AJK, 100 in GB and 1,100 in FATA) in Cluster 1, while 218,354 BISP families will be fostered into 10,900 BBCs (9,791 in Sindh and 1,109 in Balochistan) in Cluster 2.
It aims to strengthen Women Leaders’ role as informed community level advocates or frontline campaigners of BISP’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) schemes. Under the initiative, 6,246 Women Leaders (3,46pokFKiNH52ZK1W64wsWVH1Z2t2gueuTcj2xWWp3QCtAWGhC4m6WsQ7Sou6AtzEzrfTkoPy2ibAyA9vWsdsnRscRcX7bVy Leaders (2,352 in Sindh and 264 in Balochistan) of Cluster 2 will be trained.
Child enrolment will be done by digitally using android tablets having exclusive compliance application with indicators for the collection of attendance data. Funds will be transferred to the beneficiary families on 70 percent attendance compliance.
