Islamabad: Poverty is a cross-border phenomenon and India could learn from the experiences of the Benazir Income Support Programme, the Pakistan government's flagship poverty alleviation scheme, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Tuesday.
Kumar, currently on a week-long visit to Pakistan with a delegation of ministers and lawmakers from Bihar, was briefed on the BISP by Farzana Raja, the federal minister who heads the programme launched in the name of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto. Poverty is a cross-border phenomenon and several schemes aimed at poverty reduction and provision of jobs are being run in India, especially in Bihar, Kumar said.
However, the BISP is a "unique intervention in the social sector as it offers various services under one roof", he said. Kumar said he intended to learn from the experiences of BISP as it tackles both poverty alleviation and women's empowerment.
He also lauded the targeting and identification mechanisms adopted by BISP. Raja, a close aide of President Asif Ali Zardari, described poverty as a "trans-national menace" and said Pakistan is ready to share its experiences in BISP with India....
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10:18 PM, Nov 13, 2012
