(UPDATE) April 13, 2021: The operations of ‘Koi Bhooka Na Soye’ Programme have been extended to three more cities of Pakistan – Lahore, Faisalabad and Peshawar. The pilot project of this programme was launched in Islamabad to see what kind of issues would come up. It is Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision to spread the programme to the entire country and reach maximum areas where there is most poverty. To support the programme, the premier has asked the nation to contribute as much as they can and in any way they can. Each truck going on this mission has the capacity to feed 1500 to 2000 people daily which is parked at specific service points.
Prime Minister Imran Khan believes in enabling the common man and making them self-sufficient. One of the aims of the incumbent government is to remove poverty from the country and this is the reason why the premier has pushed for different initiatives for a common man. For the less privileged members of the society, Prime Minister Imran Khan has launched the “Koi Bhooka Na Soye” programme under which meals will be provided to hungry and poor people.
Prime Minister’s Koi Bhooka Na Soye Programme
Under the current government, different initiatives have been launched for poverty alleviation. An example of this is the Ehsaas Programme under which more than 130 initiatives have been launched to permanently eradicate poverty from the country. Koi Bhooka Na Soye Programme has been launched under the umbrella of Ehsaas Poverty Alleviation.
The population of Pakistan consists of both wealthy and underprivileged people. Those who have been blessed with a fortune donate passionately to help those who can’t even afford basic necessities of life. There are many people who work on daily wages and their livelihood depends on finding a job every day. It is unfortunate that not all the daily wagers are able to find a job every day and some of them have to sleep empty stomach. The programme launched aims to find these people and provide them with meals twice a day.
The meals will be distributed through food trucks, which will go from area to area so as to serve as many people as possible. The programme has been initially launched in only twin cities but the premier has ensured the nation that one day these vans will be feeding people across the country. A large-scale project like this one requires a lot of financial assistance and the prime minister informed during the launching ceremony of the programme that many people have already offered to donate to the government’s initiative.
Every citizen of the country deserves access to basic necessities of life. For the provision of one such necessity, the government in the past had established “Panahgahs” to provide shelter to homeless people along with meals served twice a day. These shelters, where labourers and homeless people and families are facilitated, have been set up at multiple places and now the meals-on-wheels is another development in the government’s mission to alleviate poverty in Pakistan.
Other Government Initiatives For Poverty Alleviation
The launch of the Koi Bhooka Na Soye Programme is not the only initiative the government has announced for the needy and deserving members of society. In fact, the premier has also announced to introduce another programme “Direct Subsidy Programme” through which 30 million Pakistanis will be able to benefit. The programme is aimed to help the underprivileged to combat the growing inflation by providing them a subsidy and transferring that subsidized amount to millions of people’s accounts which will help them buy basic food items like flour, sugar, oil etc.
Among other points on the current government’s manifesto, one is to unleash Pakistan’s potential in agriculture. This can’t be done unless farmers are given subsidies on different things such as products required to enhance the quality of the crop. The prime minister has acknowledged this and assured to bring another subsidy programme designed specifically for the farmers. The programme is currently in its planning phase and 70% of work has been completed and as soon as the remaining 30 percent is completed, it will be unveiled to the nation. He broadly mentioned that the key focus of the programme will be to provide subsidy to farmers so that they can buy fertilizers and other agricultural products.
The subsidy will also attract more and more farmers to grow crops and work towards restoring Pakistan’s old status of ‘agricultural country’.
About Ehsaas Programme
Ehsaas Programme is the flagship programme of the current government that was launched in 2020. The programme is aimed to reduce poverty in Pakistan through different initiatives. Currently, there are more than 130 initiatives running under the umbrella of Ehsaas Programme such as:
Quite recently, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar announced that the government is working on the launch of the one-window Ehsaas initiative that will serve as a single-service operation to facilitate the beneficiaries registered with Ehsaas. Through this initiative, people will be able to easily access multiple Ehsaas initiatives and information about different Ehsaas programmes.
Other than the government, there are private organizations too that are working in different cities of Pakistan. You can read about some of the welfare trusts working in Karachi or Pakistan’s largest welfare trust, Edhi Foundation at Zameen Blog and don’t forget to subscribe to Zameen.com’s Newsletter.
