To ensure financial support for women-led poor families, the government is launching the “Family Card” program today, Tuesday (March 10). Under this initiative, each selected family will receive an allowance of 2,500 taka per month. Beneficiaries will be able to receive the money from home through mobile wallets or bank accounts.

The program will be formally inaugurated at 10:00 am at the T&T playground near Korail slum in Banani, Dhaka, where Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will officially launch the initiative. Senior officials from the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Ministry of Finance will also attend the event.

At a press conference organized by the Ministry of Social Welfare on Monday afternoon, Finance and Planning Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said that the selection of beneficiaries for the Family Card program was carried out through a completely transparent and independent process. During the pilot phase, information from 67,854 women-led families was collected. After verification, 37,567 families were finally selected to receive the allowance.

He said the program has been introduced as part of fulfilling an electoral commitment. The project was designed considering the country’s economic capacity and social realities. He also emphasized that no political influence or partisan considerations were involved in preparing the beneficiary list.

The Social Welfare Minister said that each eligible women-led family will receive a modern smart card, which will be secure and durable. Through a single card, up to five members of a family will be able to receive benefits. In the case of joint or extended families with more members, the government will consider providing multiple cards proportionately.

Government sources said that families already receiving other government allowances, pensions, or benefits from government jobs will not be eligible for this allowance. Additionally, families owning a commercial license, large business establishments, luxury assets such as cars or air conditioners, or savings certificates worth more than 500,000 taka will also be excluded from the program.

As a pilot project, the program will initially be implemented in 15 wards of 13 city corporations and unions across 13 districts. For this purpose, committees formed at the district, upazila, union, and ward levels conducted door-to-door surveys to verify families’ socio-economic conditions, including the number of members, education, housing situation, household assets, income, and remittance information.