SAPNA package for women to be extended further: Chumki

State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki yesterday said the Social Assistance Programme for Non-Assetor (SAPNA) package for the rural poor women will be extended further to alleviate poverty to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reports BSS. “The poverty rate is being decreased gradually and there is a need for taking initiative to create a skilled manpower to turn Bangladesh into a middle income country by 2021,” she told a review meeting on SAPNA package activities at the Department of Women Affairs in the capital
The state minister said government has increased the allocation for the social safety net budget in 2016-2017 fiscal which increased the number of SAPNA package beneficiaries- rural poor pregnant women- up to 90 percent and stood at 5,00,000.
The aspect of the patriarchal mindset towards women should be changed and their rights and dignity should be ensured in the family, Chumki added.
Women and Children Affairs Secretary Nachima Begum, Additional Secretary Bikash Kishor Das, Department of Women Affairs Director Mohammad Jahangir Hossain, SAPNA Package Project Director Perveen Sultana, SAPNA Package Inventor and Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DROP) Founder AHM Numan, addressed the function, among others, with Women Affairs Department Director General Shaheen Ahmed Chowdhury in the chair.
The government has been functioning activities of SAPNA package since 2015 at 10 upazilas under the seven divisions along with the assistance of DROP.

SAPNA package for women to be extended further: Chumki

State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki yesterday said the Social Assistance Programme for Non-Assetor (SAPNA) package for the rural poor women will be extended further to alleviate poverty to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reports BSS. The poverty rate is being decreased gradually and there is a need for taking initiative to create a skilled manpower to turn Bangladesh into a middle income country by 2021, she told a review meeting on SAPNA package activities at the Department of Women Affairs in the capital The state minister said government has increased the allocation for the social safety net budget in 2016-2017 fiscal which increased the number of SAPNA package beneficiaries- rural poor pregnant women- up to 90 percent and stood at 5,00,000. The aspect of the patriarchal mindset towards women should be changed and their rights and dignity should be ensured in the family, Chumki added. Women and Children Affairs Secretary Nachima Begum, Additional Secretary Bikash Kishor Das, Department of Women Affairs Director Mohammad Jahangir Hossain, SAPNA Package Project Director Perveen Sultana, SAPNA Package Inventor and Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DROP) Founder AHM Numan, addressed the function, among others, with Women Affairs Department Director General Shaheen Ahmed Chowdhury in the chair. The government has been functioning activities of SAPNA package since 2015 at 10 upazilas under the seven divisions along with the assistance of DROP.