Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is set to inaugurate the pilot distribution of Family Cards on March 10, ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

A cabinet subcommittee meeting chaired by the prime minister approved the Family Card initiative in the presence of relevant ministers, advisers, and senior officials.

Under the scheme, beneficiaries will receive Tk 2,500 per month.

“There will be no political or religious discrimination of any kind. It is a universal card and is being launched on a pilot basis,” Social Welfare Minister AZM Zahid Hossain said after the meeting at the Cabinet Division.

The pilot will run for four months, after which the programme is expected to expand across the country. Initial coverage will be phased: starting with one ward, then one union, gradually extending to entire upazilas to ensure universal access, he added.

Regarding beneficiary selection, the minister said no household will be chosen from home-based records.

“Selection will be done from the field level through door-to-door data collection. No one will be excluded, and there will be no involvement of intelligence agencies or party elements.”

Currently, 14 upazilas have been selected for the pilot, with one ward of one union in each upazila receiving the Family Cards. Activities will be launched simultaneously in these locations.

The programme targets three categories: the ultra-poor, the poor, and lower-income families. The mother, as head of the household, will receive the benefit, aiming to strengthen women’s economic empowerment.

“If a woman becomes economically self-reliant, a family will become self-reliant, and the next generation will also benefit,” Zahid Hossain said.

He noted that the initiative is part of an electoral commitment by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and that the prime minister has long worked on implementing it.

The programme will be overseen by government officials and employees. Committees will be formed at the upazila, union, and ward levels under official leadership, with a two-tier checking system to minimise errors.

As the current fiscal year is in its latter half, funding will come from lump allocations by the Ministry of Finance, with plans to include it in the regular budget from the next fiscal year.