The Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), which was established to give unconditional cash handouts to the severely poor, has developed into a significant form of corruption and a tool of social humiliation for poor women due to the government’s negligence, as per local leaders from Kunri, a major town in the Umerkot district in the Tharparkar Desert.
According to an educationist Abdul Moneem Khan, rural women are unable to use the automated teller machines (ATMs), so agents waiting outside ask them to pay Rs500 to withdraw the Rs3,000 allotted to them.
The owners of the devices express dismay that “the government had chosen to turn a blind eye to corruption at the grass-root level” while taking a cut of up to Rs1,500 from the women who are struggling with poverty for online wallet payments.
He asserted that dishonest BISP officials, local government officials, police, device owners, and their agents are present at BISP device shops and ATMs in banks throughout the country.
Resident Anwar Arain as per local media reports claimed that some of these individuals occasionally rob ladies of the full sum.
Arain claimed that some police officers had a propensity of intimidating ladies gathered outside of ATMs.
He claimed, “They engage in inappropriate behavior and degrade the women, who remain silent out of fear of additional humiliation.”
He claimed that certain individuals defraud these women of their full compensation by promising them higher payments.
They urged action against dishonest cops and device owners as well as adequate protection for women using the BISP program to withdraw cash.
