Introduction:
Social protection is regarded as a basic right and simply concerned with avoiding, controlling and overcoming situations that have a negative impact on people’s well-being. It involves planning and designing programs in order to alleviate poverty, suppressing factors that hinder human development and diminishing agents which risk human growth. The hazards might be on a local scale, impacting homes, or on a big scale, affecting towns and nations. Its main objective is to assist communities in coping with poverty, misery and vulnerability. Several organizations define social protection in a distinctive manner though they all point to the same objective which is improving livelihoods. International Labor Organization labels social protection as a human right and is defined as the set of policies and programmes designed to reduce and prevent poverty and vulnerability throughout the life cycle. Social protection includes benefits for children and families, maternity, unemployment, employment injury, sickness, old age, disability, survivors, as well as health protection. Social protection systems address all these policy areas by a mix of contributory schemes (social insurance) and non-contributory tax-financed benefits, including social assistance. Similarly, World Bank Group asserts that social protection and labor systems, policies, and programs help individuals and societies manage risk and volatility and protect them from poverty and destitution – through instruments that improve resilience, equity, and opportunity. UNICEF emphasizes greatly on the importance of social protection and well-being. It alleges that social protection is a set of policies and programmes aimed at preventing or protecting all people against poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion throughout their life-course, with a particular emphasis towards vulnerable groups. On the other hand, Pakistan is one of the few developing countries whose constitution explicitly states that social security is a basic right, Article 38 (d) and (e), (Principles of Policy) of the Constitution of Pakistan states: The State shall provide for all persons employed in the service of Pakistan or otherwise, social security by compulsory social insurance or other means; provide basic necessities of life such as food, clothing, housing, education and medical relief, for all such citizens, irrespective of sex, creed, caste, or race, as are permanently or temporarily unable to earn their livelihood on account of infirmity, sickness or unemployment; reduce disparity in the income and earnings of individuals.
According to the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MPI), 541 million poor people in South Asia out of which 75 million were in Pakistan and 40 million were alone children. Poverty at this scale means that communities, where such poverty struck people reside, do not have access to work towards the quantity, quality, or standard of their basic amenities that are accessible to them.
Institute of Rural Management, tends to pre-plan strategies, programs and policies to implement them with the intention of facilitating people and providing the essential amenities for their wellbeing so they could resist the repercussions of long-term poverty and increasing inequality. In order to evade any sort of influences that poverty and inequality brings along with them, IRM designs strategies to prevent them from affecting targeted beneficiaries in any way. IRM aims to assist chronically impoverished households.
IRM’s Social protection programme is a key step toward prosperous Pakistan. The mission of IRM’s Social Protection Programme is to combat poverty and exclusion. IRM’s Social Protection programme objective is to develop and provide a platform focused on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable through protection, security, education and training.
The components of social protection
- Social Protection
- Socio-economic security;
- Water Security;
- Food Security;
- Shelter;
- Social assistance and welfare service: Response to Disaster/Pandemic.
Social Protection through IRM SMART Schools
For IRM, social protection is providing support and protection for children and vulnerable families against vulnerabilities and exposure to various insecurities. IRM believes that underprivileged families and children experience many forms of insecurity. They are most in need of support and protection yet they are the least protected. IRM believes that the impoverished children are the most vulnerable on the planet. To provide social protection, IRM has established “Smart Schools” to bring out of school children from vulnerable and disadvantaged families back to school and to mainstream them through provision of low-cost but quality primary education. The concept of Smart Schools revolves around the mobilization of underprivileged rural communities and raising awareness regarding the importance of education. IRM consider the role of education as a tool for empowerment is substantial for social protection. Everyone shall have the right to education directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity. IRM is currently running 76 Smart Schools, 32 in Sindh, 40 in Lahore (Punjab) and 4 in Islamabad. A total of more than 2,403 students from extremely marginalized families have been enrolled in Smart Schools.
Socio-Economic Security through IRM Smart STEP
To provide socio-economic security, IRM’s Smart STEP is an initiative to provide an opportunity to marginalized youth (men and women) from slum areas of Pakistan. IRM believes that investment in youth empowerment is the right and smart thing to do for improving the state of deprived families. socio-economic security is an instrument of empowerment and social progress.
Primary goal is to provide technical and vocational training and to mainstream unnoticed marginalized men and women (widows with dependent children, orphans, destitute, poor, and women with disabilities) through the provision of quality vocational training, entrepreneurial skills, and life skills.
Economic Security: Cash funding for start-ups
To unburden IRM trainees from economic crises, IRM distributed PKR 7.3 million among 848 individuals in south Punjab. IRM is providing free employable skills to these men and women so that they could start their work or business or get wage employment to earn their living and contribute to reduce poverty.
Water Security: Access to clean Drinking Water
The provision of clean drinking water has become a major challenge for Pakistan. Access to water and sanitation quality remained low as Pakistan had ranked 140 out of 180 countries in water and sanitation on the Environmental Performance Index. IRM took initiative to building reliable infrastructure of water pumps for provision of water nearer to the homes of underprivileged communities preferably in close proximity to the IRM smart schools. So-far IRM installed two water pumps in Sindh and 6 more are in process in Sindh and KP.
Food Security
Provision of Ration
IRM took initiatives to lighten some of the financial burden of the deprived families with the delivery of grocery basics to those who needed it most. IRM raised PKR 2.044 million and distributed a one-month ration to 733 IRM SMART school families in Punjab, Sindh and Islamabad. Each ration bag could feed six persons for one month. Through IRM Smart Schools, IRM is facilitating free education to out of school children from impoverished communities. Their family’s livelihood depended on daily wages. Most of these family members were either the domestic worker, minority group or Brick kiln workers. This pandemic posed an additional threat to them not being able to put food on the table for their families. IRM efforts in this regard were acknowledged through various national and local newspapers.
Provision of food to impoverished children
IRM provide food to the students of IRM smart Schools in collaboration of its partner. During the medical examination of these children, malnutrition was common. The most direct way to end hunger and malnutrition is through food-assistance to these under privileged children. This programme weaves a vital food safety net for these children.
Shelter through Tent City
To achieve the DRR/Relief & Rehabilitation customized programme goals, IRM works in close partnership with disaster management authorities at national, provincial and district levels, local government institutions, affected communities, and, where possible, the private sector. It seeks to restore a safe and enabling environment for disaster affected communities by helping them to recover from the impact of the floods/earthquakes.
- IRM established 03 tent cities in flood affected district Jamshoro, Sindh. The Project titled “Establishment of tent city for Flood affected displaced people of district Jamshoro, Sindh”. Under the project 2,500 families were provided with transitional shelters and different camp management committees formed to manage the camp in the disaster scenario.
Social assistance and welfare service: Response to Disaster/Pandemic
Awareness Raising
IRM provided orientation sessions, awareness raised to IRM members and IRM trainees through emails, direct training and to individuals through social media platforms. IRM also provided the necessary information kit to those who do not have access to the internet especially women. IRM launched the public awareness campaign to aware of the common masses by sharing information material highlight the tips and advice to reduce the risk of coronavirus, focusing on mental health, the impact of this pandemic on women, protection guidelines and other related concerns amid the COVID-19 health crisis.
Provision of Health and Hygiene Kits and Training
- Under WASH Project, 73,000 households have been trained in health and hygiene. The project covered six districts of Sindh including Sukkur, Khairpur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Shahdatkot and Kashmore/KandhKot.
- 3,567,165 health and hygiene items including hygiene kits, Buckets with lids, jerry Cans, aqua tabs and pure sachets were distributed in flood affected districts of Sindh.
Recovery and Restoration
- IRM provided technical assistance and training facilitation in the early recovery and restoration of the communities to reduce the dependencies on the emergency flood relief funding and assistance. The initiative aimed to create and promote sustainable livelihood opportunities and to ensure that the communities could use self-reliant methods to work towards restoring their community infrastructure and build community shelters that are disaster resilient. IRM’s training enabled the community of district Thatta to get involved in reconstruction of their houses/communities without dependence on foreign assistance.
Relief & Rehabilitation Work in Earthquake 2005
- IRM built the ccapacity of community in Reconstruction in which targeted households were provided with Artisan Training for earthquake resilient house construction according to the hazard resistant construction standards in AJK and Muzaffarabad.
- IRM provided training for the community members to orient them to the operation and maintenance of the drinking water supplies, Training of Water Management Committee, Training of Trainers for Village Health Workers in Hygiene Promotion for Earthquake 2005 affectees and Hygiene Promotion Workshop.
