Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will inaugurate the government’s landmark “Family Card” programme tomorrow, aiming to strengthen women’s empowerment and ensure their rights, dignity and economic independence.
The inauguration ceremony will be held at the T&T playground in Banani, adjacent to the Korail slum, at 10:00 am.
The initiative is part of the government’s effort to advance social protection by recognising women as heads of households and enhancing their role in national development and social justice.
Social Welfare Minister Abu Zafar Md Zahid Hossain announced the launch at a press conference at the Multipurpose Hall of the Ministry of Finance on Monday, held ahead of the programme’s inauguration.
Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Prime Minister’s Adviser Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, State Minister for Social Welfare Farzana Sharmin, State Minister for LGRD Mir Shahe Alam and other officials were present.
Under the pilot phase, the programme will be implemented in 15 wards of 13 city corporations and unions across 13 districts.
Zahid Hossain said committees at ward, union, upazila and district levels were formed to identify eligible beneficiaries. Ward committees conducted door-to-door surveys to gather data on households’ socio-economic conditions, including family size, education, housing status, assets and remittance flow. The information was later verified by union and upazila committees.
During the pilot phase, data on 67,854 women-headed households were collected. Using a software-based Proxy Means Test (PMT), households were classified into several income categories.
Out of 51,805 households initially identified as extreme poor, poor and lower-middle-income, verification found 47,777 households with valid data. After removing cases involving multiple benefits, government employment or pension entitlements, a total of 37,567 households were selected for assistance.
Officials said the automated PMT-based system would reduce the risk of corruption, nepotism or manual interference in beneficiary selection.
Each eligible household will receive a modern “Family Card” equipped with a contactless chip, QR code and NFC technology. Each card will cover up to five family members, while larger joint families may receive additional cards.
Under the pilot programme, each selected household will receive a monthly allowance of Tk 2,500 through the Government-to-Person (G2P) digital payment system directly to the women’s mobile wallets or bank accounts.
For the pilot implementation until June 2026, the government has allocated Tk 38.07 crore. Of the amount, Tk 25.15 crore will be distributed as direct cash support, while Tk 12.92 crore will cover programme implementation, including data collection, system development and card production.
The minister said the programme will be provided free of cost and beneficiaries will not need to collect the cards from offices as officials will deliver them directly to their homes.
He added that the government will review the pilot programme every month, with a three-month “lesson learning” period continuing until June 30 before considering further expansion.