Job creation for ultra-poor to get countrywide coverage this year

The government wants to extend the ‘Employment Generation Programme’ for the ultra-poor across the country to provide jobs to people battered by the Covid-19 pandemic, an official of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief said.

The EGPP policy will be amended to benefit the wage workers and piecemeal construction workers at all the upazilas instead of a limited upazilas.

Earlier, an upazilla used to qualify for EGPP if it had 30 per cent hardcore poor. Now it will be expanded countrywide.

Besides, the upazila administrations have also provided cash and various other financial support for the poor section of the people in the respective constituencies of the EGPP, officials said.

The Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief sent a letter to the finance ministry urging it to take necessary steps to run the EGPP across the country.

The project director of the EGPP, Salim Ahmed told the Business Insider Bangladesh that the programme has been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic but will resume shortly.

Due to Covid-19 a good number of rural people have lost their jobs or income. Therefore, the programme is being largely extended for the betterment of the people, he said.

According to the new programme, the finance division will disburse necessary funds in the first month and also in the middle of a fiscal year to execute EGPP in 492 upazilas under 64 districts. Currently, the MoDMR runs EGPPs across 216 upazilas where ultra-poor people comprise more than 30 percent of the population.

“We need an additional Tk 900 crore to spread the programme countrywide,” MoDMR secretary Md Moshin told Business Insider Bangladesh on Saturday.

He said people need employment in all the upazilas as the deadliest ever Covid-19 pandemic had battered the economy.

“We know the private sector investment has been squeezed. Therefore, the government comes forward to provide financial and job support to the ultra-poor,” he said.

It is the right time for the government to outspread the employment generation programmes in the country, he added.

A noted development activist, Selim Raihan, told Business Insider Bangladesh on Saturday that a sizable number of people have lost their jobs in the pandemic and the government should intervene here.

“The major sectors of the economy, such as, micro, small and medium enterprises were shut permanently because of the pandemic. The government should intervene to revive the sectors at the grassroots,” Raihan, also the executive director of South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem), said.

In the 2021-22 fiscal year budget, the finance ministry allocated a total of Tk 1,650 crore and EGPP for some 19.18 lakh beneficiaries in 216 upazilas. In the 2020-21 fiscal year the total beneficiaries were only 6.68 lakh people. Since 2008, the Employment Generation Program for the Poorest was taken in response to the 2008 global food price crisis, officials said.

Meanwhile, the government will also execute the EGPP for some 40,000 Rohingya refugees in the country, officials said.