Social Safety Net Programme (SSN): Social Safety Net Programme

(SSNP) is a programmatic mechanism for maintaining social harmony

through redistribution of resources towards the disadvantaged
groups. It is supposed to play the role of social insurance through
alleviating miseries of vulnerable poor or those at risk of being poor
due to any irrevocable physical or economic shocks. The programs are
mostly run in developing and under developed countries in different
forms. The service and benefits of this program reaches to the people
through different methodologies and approaches done by local
authorities who are permitted to do so.

Social Safety Net Program (SSNP) in Bangladesh: Social Safety Net

Programs (SSNP’s) were introduced in Bangladesh with a view to
helping the economically vulnerable communities or the group of
people living in the extreme poverty or the people who are lagging
back economically and socially by gender, location and religion. It was
the primary objective of these programs to create a balanced social
security through offering monetary support to the extreme poor
people of different communities of the country in order to make them
climb out of extreme poverty. It is not far from the present decade
when social safety net programs were initiated by the state to assist
the poor people. After the independence of Bangladesh in1971, there
continued some initiatives of social welfare funding but these had
been in a very small scale. In the nineties, these small welfare
initiatives for the poor turned into social safety net programs and till
then poor people of different communities have been getting
monetary help in the name of these programs. Government is
attempting to alleviate poverty by implementing various kinds of
Social Safety Net Programs (SSNP). The social safety net measures are
broadly divided into four fields: (i) Provision of special allowances for
the various underprivileged sections of the population, so that the
poor and disadvantaged people can tackle poverty effectively,
(ii)Creation of employment opportunities for the poor people,
(iii)Food security based activities to reduce the consequences of
natural disasters; and (iv) Provision of education, health and training
to make the new generation more capable and self-reliant. Presently,
there are many Social Safety Net Programs (SSNP) schemes run by the
government of Bangladesh in collaboration with the donors and
NGOs. While the largest programmes are food-based, conditional cash
transfers have become increasingly important. But fiscal constraints
and some other loopholes inhibit the Social Safety Net Programs
(SSNP)’s coverage and success to its desired level.

Social Safety Net Programs (SSNP’s) coverage in Bangladesh:

The Government of Bangladesh is conducting a total of 144 (including
10 newly added programmes) SSNPs according to the budget 2014-
15. These programmes are classified in four different categories
namely: (i) Cash Transfer Programmes (22 programmes), (ii) Food
Security Programmes (9programmes), (iii) Micro-Credit and
Miscellaneous Funds Programmes (20 programmes), (iv)
Development Sector Programmes (93 programmes including newly
introduced 10 development programmes). However, many of these
programmes do not qualify as social protection in the strict sense of
the term as well as for the purpose of calculation of social protection
index. Some of the categorized programs of SSN’s in Bangladesh
involve the following:
Unconditional Cash Transfers: Old Age Allowance, Allowances for the
Widow, Destitute and Deserted Women, Allowances for the
Financially Insolvent Disabled
Public works: Employment Generation Program for the Poorest, Food
for Work/Work for Money and Test Relief
Humanitarian Relief: Vulnerable Group Feeding
Conditional Cash Transfers: Towards a Child Benefit Scheme, Income
Support Program for the Poorest (Jawtno)

Program allowances: The most remarkable SSNPs in progress in

Bangladesh are as follows: Old Age Allowance, allowances for the
widow, deserted and destitute women, allowances for financially
insolvent persons with disabilities, maternity allowance programme
for the poor lactating mothers, allowances for urban, low-income
lactating mothers, honorarium for freedom fighters, grants for
residents in government orphanages and other Institutions, capitation
grants for orphan students in non-government orphanages, block
allocation for disaster management, pension for retired government
employees and their families, ration for Shaheed families and injured
freedom fighters, Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF), Test Relief (TR)
food, Gratuitous Relief (GR) food. However, the following major
programmes are in progress: Old age allowance, allowance for the
disabled, allowance for the widowed, deserted and destitute women,
VGD, VGF, freedom fighter allowance, stipend for primary students,
stipend for secondary and higher secondary students, stipend for
disabled students, maternity allowance, and freedom fighter
allowance etc. Old age and widow allowance formally started to run
respectively in 1997 and 1998. Since the orientation of these two
programs, the amount of money for the aged and the widowed has
been increased to 500 TK, which started with 100 TK at the initial
stage. Currently Social Safety Net programmes have achieved
considerable expansion in terms of coverage, scope and types. Old
people whose age is 62 and above years in case of female and 65 and
above in case of male who have little or no income are considered
eligible to receive old age allowance in Bangladesh. At the same time,
the women who are widowed or husband deserted are considered
eligible for widow allowance. In case of the selection of the
beneficiaries of widow allowance, old, physically disabled are given
the priority. It is a monthly cash subsidy provided by the Government
to help the poor and vulnerable people to survive. 53% people who
get old age allowance are unemployed and the percentages of the
people working as farmers, day labours and others cover respectively
10% whereas housewife and beggar cover 14% and 3% consecutively.

Implementing Body: In Bangladesh Safety Net Programs are

implemented through a wide range of bodies including the Ministry of
Social Welfare, the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, the
Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, Ministry of Primary and
Mass Education and Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
Under the supervision of these ministries many agencies, non-
governmental organizations, and international bi-lateral and multi-
lateral partners are also involved in the implementation process. In
field level these Allowance or cash providing programs are
implemented by the local authority - Upazila Chairman, UNO, Social
Welfare Officer, Mayor, Councillor, UP Chairman, and UP Member.
These engagements of multiple authorities have made the programs
more dynamic but in many cases create coordination problems. Thus
for better outcome there should be a smooth coordination between
the implementing bodies.
Problems concerning Social Safety Net Programs (SSNP’s): Although
social safety nets are in existence for mass benefit and poverty
reduction, it has become exposed to some barriers. Like, there are a
lot of discrepancies regarding the age of the old age allowance
receivers. Sometimes it is found that people increase their age in the
National ID Card to get the allowance whereas in many cases some
deserving candidates do not get the allowance because the age
mentioned in their National ID Card are less than the age range for
getting the allowance, the coverage of the allowances is not sufficient
because of inadequacy of resource, Safety Net Programs are
implemented by numerous agencies including many arms of
government, non-governmental organizations, and international bi-
lateral and multi-lateral partners. Since a number of authorities are
involved in this process, it often creates overlap between programs
and miscommunication.

Critical Analysis: Recent years have seen a perceptible increase in

interest in social safety nets within developing countries. Although
many critics have questioned social safety-nets as something
politically expedient, stigmatizing and highly inadequate to prime
concerns of the poor, the necessity of such nets was never really
discarded in practice. However, a new urgency is now visible as safety
nets and the broader issue of social protection is increasingly being
seen as a mainstream development concern. Originally, a narrow
concept of public social safety nets operated amounting to non-
contributing state transfers in cash or kind. These were sometimes
universal, but more often targeted, to help the poor or those suffering
from poverty to overcome their transient problems. More recent
conceptualization, particularly for developing countries, argues for a
broader scope. The portfolio of safety net programmes address
different dimensions of vulnerability and it is important for an
assessment exercise not to fall into the trap of comparing apples and
oranges. For example, programmes addressing transient food
insecurity may not compare well with programmes focused on
addressing structural poverty. The appropriate result to look for in the
former is consumption smoothening and the prevention of a further
slide in poverty status while in the latter, the appropriate result is
graduation. Safety Net Programs in Bangladesh are implemented by
numerous agencies including many arms of government, non-
governmental organizations, and international bi-lateral and multi-
lateral partners. Since a number of authorities involved in this process,
it often creates confusion and improper application of the program
countrywide. An integrated coordination is needed for better result.

Conclusion: Though Bangladesh has achieved the status of a lower-

middle income country, the coverage of the social safety net programs
are still limited. Effective Social Safety Net Programs (SSNP’s) are
supposed to promote dynamic efficiency by alleviating the adverse
socio-economic impact of structural reforms crucial for moving
economic growth ahead. In this regard, SSNPs are not being able to
fulfil the expectations as our study shows that they could not achieve
any significant acceleration of the motion of economy of Bangladesh
by bringing about positive socio -economic changes in the lives of the
poor beneficiaries. So, further modification of the programs and their
actions can turn the ongoing SSNPs into very effective programmes
which will be able to achieve its goal of poverty reduction and higher
graduation rate which is coming out of poor state to non-poor state of
livelihood.

References:
Ministry of Finance-
http://www.mof.gov.bd/en/budget/14_15/safety_net/safety_net

Statistical Yearbook of Bangladesh 2014. 34th Edition. BBS, Dhaka-

The Revised Social Protection Index: Methodology and Handbook
(2012). Asian Development Bank, Manila

World Bank Group-

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/04/29/social-
safety-nets-in-bangladesh-help-reduce-poverty-and-improve-human-
capital