The proposed Family Card programme has become one of the most talked about policy initiatives of the present government, and for good reason. As reported, prime minister Tarique Rahman is going to formally launch the Family Card on March 10. With this first major move, the newly formed BNP government has acted with notable speed to get its flagship programme off the ground. To that end, it has convened a high-level committee to finalise a pilot scheme in 13 wards under 13 upazilas ahead of Eid. Amid inflationary pressures that have pushed basic necessities beyond the reach of millions, such a targeted support system for low-income families is urgently needed. The idea itself is a real departure from the usual small stipends disbursed for years, offering up to Tk 2,500 per month which is a significant sum of money for a poor household struggling to buy oil, lentils or medicine. This was a central election promise and the government seems keen to deliver on it. But anyone observing social safety nets in this country over the decades knows that a sound policy on paper means nothing if the implementation gets stuck halfway through. The real test is the execution and that is where the government must pour all its energy and attention.
The truth is that Bangladesh has an overcrowded field of social safety net programmes with more than a hundred of them operating at once. Despite this breadth, the benefits somehow keep missing the people who need them most. Studies and planning documents have repeatedly noted that inclusion and exclusion errors are rampant, meaning the non-poor often grab the benefits while many deserving households are left out. The process of selecting needy households has traditionally relied on local knowledge rather than hard data, and when that happens, political loyalty and family connections inevitably creep into the list. The Family Card cannot afford to walk down that same beaten path. Meant to eventually cover 50 million families, the margin for error is zero and the government must build something radically different from the flawed systems of the past.
The good news is that the relevant committee seems to be aware of these dangers and is talking about using National ID data and a centralised household database to pick beneficiaries. That is an essential first step, but it is important to remember that important financial information is often missing from those databases. So, ground level verification will still be necessary. This is the danger zone where good intentions meet local reality, and it is exactly where previous programmes have collapsed into mismanagement. The three-stage monitoring process promised by the social welfare minister has to be more than a slogan. It should involve independent third-party evaluations and a fully operational, accessible grievance system that allows excluded eligible households to appeal their status. Without that kind of rigorous oversight, the programme risks being captured by the same influential quarters who know how to manipulate the system.
The pilot scheme in 13 upazilas is therefore a valuable opportunity to identify every crack before the national rollout. Distribution needs to happen before Eid as planned, not for the sake of optics but to provide immediate relief at least to the families which are struggling to afford basic necessities during this holy month. The nation is watching this experiment with a mix of hope and scepticism having seen over the years too many grand schemes fade into irrelevance. If the government treats the pilot scheme as a genuine learning process and uses its findings to improve the system before scaling it up, the Family Card could well become a strong pillar of social protection and a foundation for families to have a firm footing.
