Kathmandu, July 13

The government started distributing ‘poor identity card’ to people living in abject poverty in Kapilvastu district from today, taking the total number of districts where the distribution of the ID is under way to six.

Minister of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Chakra Pani Khanal initiated the poor ID card distribution in the district from Maya Devi rural municipality.

The government had begun distributing the ID cards from five districts late last year, with plans to expand the distribution to 26 districts where a majority of the country’s poor people reside.

According to Yogendra Kumar Karki, spokesperson for Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoCPA), the government is aiming to complete distribution of the poor ID cards in all districts within next two fiscal years.

The Poor Household Support Coordination Board had conducted a survey last year and identified 391,831 poor households in 26 districts. Among them, 188,226 households were categorised as ‘extremely poor’, who will be given ‘red’ cards, 119,761 households as ‘medium poor’ will get ‘yellow’ cards. Similarly, 83,844 households classified as ‘general poor’ will get ‘blue’ cards.

As per Karki, local governments have been issuing such ID cards to poor people in the selected districts in coordination with MoCPA. The government has allocated Rs 630 million to roll out subsidy programmes for people with poor ID cards, while Rs four billion is needed for the same. The government is, however, yet to decide the benefits that the identified ‘poor’ people will receive through the ID card scheme.