As part of BNP government’s election commitments, data from an estimated 4.45 crore families nationwide will be collected and a database created by December this year to implement the Family Card programme, Social Welfare Minister AZM Zahid Hossain said on Tuesday.
Highlighting the government’s progress at a press conference called at the Secretariat on Monday, Hossain said nationwide family-based data collection has commenced simultaneously to ensure successful implementation.
The minister noted that the Family Card programme is being implemented to establish national development and social justice by ensuring women’s empowerment, rights, dignity, and economic independence.
Under the scheme, measures have been taken to gradually provide Family Cards and allowances to female-headed households across the country.
Earlier, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman officially inaugurated the piloting phase of the Family Card programme on 10 March. During the piloting stage, data was collected from 1,12,940 families across 45 unions and nine city corporation wards in 55 upazilas of 14 districts across eight divisions.
Against an initial allocation of Tk8.60 crore for conducting the pilot project, Tk6.73 crore was spent, while Tk57.20 crore was disbursed as allowances.
The main implementation of the programme has launched in the current 2026–27 fiscal year, supported by the framing of the “Family Card Implementation Policy, 2026.”
Against a total budget allocation of Tk14,000 crore for this fiscal year, Tk12,000 crore has been earmarked for allowances.
According to the policy, households across Bangladesh will be categorised into five socio-economic classes based on the updated Proxy Means Test (PMT) method of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS): ultra-poor, poor, vulnerable lower-middle class, middle class, and upper class.
Female-headed families scoring 860 points or fewer under the PMT score will be considered eligible to receive the allowance. While all female-headed families will be issued a Family Card, receiving allowances remains subject to fulfilling the prescribed eligibility criteria.
To execute the door-to-door survey, the “Family Card Household Survey Data Collection Guidelines, 2026” has been formulated, with 66,615 data collectors and 6,681 supervisors deployed following the completion of their first phase of training.
Data collectors will visit homes directly, using specialised tablet devices via mobile networks to enter information directly into an online database. Procurement of cards, network-based cybersecurity, personnel management, and the setting up of a Network Operations Centre (NOC) room have also been completed.
According to the minister, the database covering an estimated 4 crore 45 lakh families will be completed by December, with eligible beneficiaries selected from the PMT database.
For the current fiscal year, a target has been fixed to issue Family Cards and allowances to 40 lakh new female-headed families, with plans to cover all eligible female-headed households phase by phase over the next three fiscal years.
Beneficiaries’ Family Cards will incorporate dual-chip, QR code, and Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies.
Allowance withdrawals will be supported through government agent banking, Point of Sales (POS), and Mobile Financial Services (MFS) including bKash, Rocket, Upay, and Tap.
The social welfare minister expressed hope that this government initiative will enhance the financial capacity and ensure social security for female-headed households.
