ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar on Wednesday said that Ehsaas had opened an e-portal “Ehsaas Digital” to provide easy access to information and services related to all initiatives to help empower and facilitate a common man.
“The digital e-portal offers Ehsaas specific people-centered information to address their questions about how they can benefit from diverse programmes of Ehsaas as they are not interested in technical information,” Dr Nishtar stated during a news conference.
Dr Nishtar explained that Ehsaas Digital e-portal was a one stop source of information on Ehsaas programme electronically linking public with the right set of information needed to enroll and benefit from its initiatives.
It integrates Ehsaas benefits and services for 14 different target groups of our society all including the extreme poor, orphans, widows, homeless, disabled, undernourished, students from low-income backgrounds, poor women and elderly citizens, she said.
The specifically designed instructional programmes in Urdu allow masses to read and understand people centered information of myriad Ehsaas programmes and initiatives.
Anyone interested to know about Ehsaas can check instructional details of mainstream Ehsaas programmes through this online portal.
Ehsaas Digital lets people see the salient features, eligibility criteria, benefits, address lists of programme offices by region along with helpline numbers for each of the programmes and initiatives.
READ MORE: PM inaugurates first one-window Ehsaas centre in Islamabad
The Ehsaas Digital portal will also strengthen transparency and communication loops with public-particularly with beneficiaries. Being able to respond to queries and concerns of beneficiaries in Urdu language will enable Ehsaas to tailor its social protection and poverty alleviation response to be more efficient and people-centric.
Dr Nishtar said that promoting evidence-based communication was critically needed to counter the widespread rumors and misinformation by fraudsters in the name of Ehsaas.
“This digital information and services platform will deter corruption and fraud by alerting a common man with relevant and appropriate information about Ehsaas benefits and services”.
The first Ehsaas One Window Center was opened by the Prime Minister on June 9 in the federal capital where all Ehsaas services can be accessed in one place.
Nishtar conveyed that Ehsaas will open One Window Ehsaas Centers in every district for which approval will be sought in the board meeting scheduled to be held this month.
Responding to a question, Dr. Nishtar informed that Rs. 190 billion has been utilized so far during the current Fiscal Year out of Rs. 200 billion for Ehsaas initiatives.
To another question, she said Ehsaas has not received any foreign funding for its projects. She all informed that work on providing access to the people to all the instructional material in Sindhi and Pashto language was going on.
