Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has announced that 41 lakh families across the country will be brought under the Family Card programme within the next one year.
He made the announcement on Monday (July 13) morning during an exchange of opinion meeting with family cardholders of Gournadi upazila at Batajor Ashwini Kumar Institute ground under Gournadi upazila in Barisal district.
At that time, the Prime Minister said there are some 4 crores of families across the country. "We will gradually deliver family cards to the female heads of these families. We pledged this in our election manifesto," he said.
The Family Card in Bangladesh is a government-issued smart card used to provide targeted financial and food assistance to vulnerable and low-income households. Each eligible low-income family receive Tk 2,000 to 2,500 per month which allows them to purchase essential commodities — including rice, lentils, oil, sugar, and flour — at heavily subsidized prices each month. To ensure funds are spent on households, the cards are issued in the name of the mother or female head of the family. It is managed by the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
Tarique Rahman said 600 families in Gournadi have received family cards today. There are more families left. "We will deliver family cards to them step by step. The budget we received after forming the government was the budget prepared by the previous government. In that budget, they left no allocation for family cards. A few days ago, we presented the budget in the Jatiya Sangsad. In the budget, adequate allocation has been kept for family cards," he said.
The Prime Minister said, "We want to gradually deliver family cards to the helpless and distressed families in villages. Based on the budget allocated for family cards for the next one year, we will distribute family cards among 41 lakh families across Bangladesh within the upcoming year. Accordingly, each upazila will receive an average of 7,000 family cards over the next year. The government plans to deliver these cards to all families within the next 5 years."
The Prime Minister further said that women must be educated alongside men and equally become economically self-reliant to take Bangladesh forward. During the time of the Deshnetri Begum Khaleda Zia, free education for women up to Class X was introduced.
"Following that continuum, we will introduce free education up to the honors (graduation) level to make women self-reliant. We will arrange scholarships for girls who achieve good results. Alongside education, we have provided this family cards so that women can become self-reliant," he added.
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