Social Welfare Safety Nets 101 South Asian context - handwritten notes template
What are social safety nets in South Asia?
Definition: Government programs providing income support, food security, healthcare, and employment to vulnerable populations, with focus on rural poor, informal workers, women, children, and marginalized communities.
South Asian Context: Safety nets address extreme poverty, rural distress, informal economy challenges, and social exclusion while building human capital for economic growth.
South Asian Reality: About 88% of employed people in Southern Asia work informally (ILO, Women and Men in the Informal Economy, 2018), with limited social protection coverage
Major Indian social protection programs
Employment & livelihoods
MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act)
Coverage: 100 days guaranteed employment per rural household. (MGNREGA was repealed from 1 July 2026 and replaced by the Viksit Bharat G RAM G Act 2025, which raises the guarantee to 125 days.)
Beneficiaries: million households annually
Wage rate: ₹ per day (varies by state)
Key features: Demand-driven, self-targeting, focuses on rural infrastructure
Impact on women: % of workers are women
PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi)
Benefit: ₹6,000 per year to landholding farmer families (all landholders since 2019)
Coverage: million farmer families
Delivery: Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to bank accounts
Food security
PDS (Public Distribution System)
Coverage: million households under National Food Security Act
Entitlement: 5kg grain per person per month (priority households); 35kg per household per month (AAY)
Price: Free since 1 January 2023 under PMGKAY, extended for five years from January 2024 (NFSA prices were ₹3/kg rice, ₹2/kg wheat)
Targeting: AAY (Antyodaya) and PHH (Priority Household) categories
Mid-Day Meal Scheme (PM POSHAN since 2021)
Coverage: million children in schools
Objectives: Nutrition + education attendance
Implementation: State governments with central funding
ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services)
Target: Children under 6, pregnant and lactating mothers
Services: Nutrition, health, pre-school education
Delivery: Through Anganwadi centers
Healthcare
PM-JAY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana)
Coverage: ₹5 lakh health insurance per family annually
Beneficiaries: million poor families
Model: Cashless treatment in empaneled hospitals
JSY (Janani Suraksha Yojana)
Focus: Institutional delivery promotion
Cash incentive: ₹ for rural, ₹ for urban births
Pensions & social security
National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP)
IGNOAPS: Old Age Pension - ₹ per month
IGNWPS: Widow Pension - ₹ per month
IGNDPS: Disability Pension - ₹ per month
Other South Asian safety net programs
Bangladesh
VWB (Vulnerable Women Benefit, formerly VGD): Food + training for poor women
Old Age Allowance: Cash transfers for elderly
Primary Education Stipend: Conditional cash transfer for schooling
EGPP (Employment Generation Programme for the Poorest): Lean-season rural employment
Pakistan
BISP (Benazir Income Support Programme): Unconditional cash transfers
Waseela-e-Taleem: Education stipends
Waseela-e-Sehat: Health insurance (BISP pilot)
Ehsaas Program: Social protection umbrella of 2019-2022, folded back into BISP in 2022
Sri Lanka
Aswesuma: Welfare benefit programme that replaced Samurdhi cash support in July 2023
Elderly Allowance: Allowance for low-income older people (not universal)
Disability Allowance: Support for persons with disabilities
School Meal Program: Nutrition support in schools
Nepal
Old Age Allowance: Universal pension from age 68 (age 60 for Dalits and some remote areas)
Child Grant: Cash transfer for children under 5
Single Women Allowance: Support for widows, divorced women
