Website, app unveiled to link vulnerable rural women with scheme for economic wellness

State Minister of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs Fazilatun Nessa Indira said on Monday that her ministry's Vulnerable Women Benefit (VWB) programme will help the rural, poor women to achieve economic prosperity by eradicating their food insecurity, malnutrition and financial uncertainty.

Indira made the remarks while unveiling the website and the app of the programme at the ministry's conference room at the Secretariat in the capital on Monday.

"The VWB programme is a kind of social security. The beneficiaries of the scheme will include women who are insolvent, widowed, divorced, and don't have any earning member in their families. The women selected for the programme will be those who are landless and those who own less than .15 decimal land. Also, these women will be aged between 20-50 years," Indira said.

Indira added that the scheme will be implemented in all the upazilas of the country gradually.

"It's meant for the unions and the upazilas, not the municipalities and the city corporations. The programme will continue even if a union becomes a municipality," said Indira.

A presentation on the activities of the VWB programme was also screened during the inauguration ceremony.

According to the presentation, a beneficiary of the programme will save Tk240 per month in her account under a savings management scheme. This money will act as initial capital to run small businesses.

After two years, a woman will be able to run her own business through using this capital and the trainings received under the programme.

It aims to engage 10.40 lakh women.

From January in 2023, each beneficiary will receive 30kg rice per month under the programme. The government is eying to lift 15 lakh women from acute poverty through VWB from 2025-26.

Interested women can apply for the programme from union digital centres, VWB app and local computer shops. They can also call 109 and 333 hotlines.

Women living in remote regions like the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) will be able to apply offline through the VWB app in absence of internet connectivity.

The application for the VWB programme starts on 7 November and will continue till 21 November.

Md Hasanuzzaman Kallol, secretary of the women and children affairs ministry and Farida Pervin, Director General of the Department of Women's Affairs, among others, were present at the event.