The government is working on a new relief distribution system, which includes QR code-embedded relief cards, to prevent aid theft and ensure proper distribution of relief amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
The Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief has taken the initiative following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s directive to straighten out the relief distribution process, as reports of relief mismanagement and theft continue to pour in from all around Bangladesh.
The project is supported by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division and the Access to Information (a2i) program under the Prime Minister’s Office.
Under this project, 15 million relief cards will be produced, using the database created by the district administrations and public representatives across the country, on the people who need government relief.
Officials hope that, through these 15 million cards, around 50 million people of distressed low-income families will be benefited.
The software for the project is under development, and is likely to be finished within a week, according to the officials involved with the project, who aim to roll out the new program by the beginning of May.
Two government committees are working on this project: Md Shah Kamal, senior secretary at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, is leading the management committee, and Faizur Rahman, additional secretary (planning and development) of the same ministry, is the convener of the technical committee.
“We undertook this initiative after receiving a directive from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday [April 18],” Md Enamur Rahaman, state minister for disaster management and relief, told Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday.
“We saw media reports that many people in distress had claimed they had not been getting any relief items, though we made the arrangement. Through this new program, the aid misappropriation will be reduced.”
Faizur Rahman, convener of the technical committee, said: “We will start giving out the relief cards to the beneficiaries by the beginning of May, as many of them have yet to receive government relief due to mismanagement.”
The officials concerned are working out the issues quickly to meet the deadline, he told Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday.
Apart from this, the government is also preparing five million ration cards for the urban poor, for delivering rice at a cheap price.
How will the new program work?
As per the project plan, a total of 15 million cards will be manufactured, each embedded with a unique quick response (QR) code.
Each QR code will contain the National Identity (NID) card number of the birth certificate number, and the mobile phone number of a beneficiary.
Information for the QR codes will be taken from the data recorded by the district administrations and elected public representatives based on the need for relief in different areas.
The information will be verified by the a2i program, which has its own union and ward-based databases, in order to avoid overlaps and misappropriation.
People can also appeal for relief through the a2i hotline 333, officials said.
The relief card holders will receive an aid package of essential items such as rice, lentil, potatoes, onion, edible oil, and soap, on a monthly basis, through the local government bodies.
However, among the relief card holders, those who also have the Ministry of Food’s VGF or VGD cards, will not receive the rice, but will get other relief items.
The same rule applies for the urban poor who will receive the ration card.
Private organizations or individuals, who are running their own relief initiatives, can also use this database, sources said.
Bangladesh has been observing a general holiday since March 26, which has been extended several times and, according to the latest extension, will continue till May 5, in order to curb the transmission of Covid-19, a severely acute respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus named Sars-CoV-2.
As of Thursday, 4,186 people in Bangladesh have tested positive for the highly contagious viral infection, among whom 127 died, since the first cases were reported on March 8.
Due to the shutdown, low-middle income people such as day labourers, transport workers, informal sector workers, small office employees and people involved in small businesses have said they have lost their jobs. A number of them complained they had not been paid for their work in March, and many said they did not receive any relief from the government.
However, according to the latest data of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, collected from the deputy commissioners of 64 districts, a total of 94,464 tons of rice, Tk39.4 crore for purchasing other essentials, and an additional Tk7.94 crore for purchasing children’s food have been distributed among 8,420,483 eligible families, consisting of nearly 36.72 million people in need, as of April 20.