World Bank to lend Bengal $125 million for social empowerment schemes
In the light of the successful implementation of women’s empowerment projects like Kanyashree, Rupashree, Lakshmir Bhandar and others, the World Bank has decided to extend loan assistance to the Bengal government to the tune of $125 million.
It has written to the government that the assistance would be provided under the head of ‘Women’s Empowerment and Inclusive Social Protection Programme’. The money should be used to develop the policy framework and methods for a state-level unified delivery system of these social empowerment schemes, the aim being an inclusive and efficient social protection system for empowering vulnerable groups
Among other things, the move would specially benefit widows (who often have little or no inheritance rights and hence, a high level of dependence on their children) and the specially abled (with affordable housing), and help increase the labour force participation of women. The state’s female labour force participation is extremely low at 16 per cent, when the national average is 35 per cent.
The latter is also important in the context of Bengal’s rapidly ageing population, with the elderly growing at an annual average of 2.6 per cent. This is creating higher levels of dependency burden on households and in turn adversely impacting state expenditures and future fiscal consolidation.
For transparent implementation of the schemes, which is a prerequisite for the loan, the state government would appoint an independent verification agency (IVA) which will review documents, hold discussions with stakeholders, undertake field verifications and conduct interviews.
