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About Us

State Society for Ultra Poor and Social Welfare-SSUPSW, (brand name- ‘SAKSHAM’)is a society led by Department of Social Welfare, government of Bihar, registered under Societies Registration Act 1860. The General Body (GB) headed by Development Commissioner of Govt. of Bihar; is the apex body of the society for the policy decisions. Principal Secretary, Department of Social Welfare is the Chairperson of its Executive Committee. The society stands to provide technical support to its parent department as well as to implement government and externally-aided development programs.

Vision of the Society :

‘To protect and promote the rights of women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities (PwDs), ultra poor and beggars by ensuring their care, protection, development, socio-economic and cultural empowerment through enabling policies and programs.’

Objectives of SAKSHAM are :

  • To create an enabling policy environment for the welfare of ultra poor and beggars, women, children, older persons, PWDs by supporting formulation, planning, management and implementation of enabling policies.
  • To evolve strategies and approaches for the welfare of ultra poor and beggars, women, children, older persons, PWDs, especially in situation of vulnerabilities, risk abuse, discrimination and social stigmatization, including mentally challenged persons.
  • To provide credit and other facilities for economic empowerment of ultra poor, PwDs and Older Persons etc.
  • To contribute to the lives of ultra poor, PWDs, older persons etc. through empowerment and fostering strong self-managed grassroots institutions and support investment by them.
  • To function as the Resource Centre for DoSW and its Directorates in policy analysis and policy development – including development/revision of operational guidelines, standards of care and policy documents.
  • To support DoSW and its Directorates to review and strengthen institutional arrangements and in formulating and implementing programs/schemes for ensuring a continuum of social welfare and health and nutrition services for Ultra poor and beggars, Women, Older persons and PwDs - including setting up, management and monitoring of resource/units residential/non-residential institutions for example Old Age Homes, Children Homes, Shelter Homes, Short Stay Homes etc.

SAKSHAM has following specialized units

  • Services for ultra poor
  • Services for older persons
  • Services for persons with disabilities
  • Nutrition monitoring unit
  • Communication and research
  • Capacity building
  • Admin, finance and procurement
  • Monitoring & Evaluation

Presently SAKSHAM is undertaking following projects

  • 1. Bihar Integrated Social Protection Strengthening (BISPS):The World Bank supported intervention aims to strengthen institutional capacity of the Department of Social Welfare and the Rural Development Department to deliver social protection programs and services and expand the outreach of social care services for poor and vulnerable households, persons with disabilities, older persons and widows in the state of Bihar. In doing so, the project would ensure that the programs reach the intended target groups and improve the efficiency of public spending on social protection. It will include creation/renovation of the basic infrastructure for smooth services in all 101 sub-divisional level Buniyad Centres. Those living in remote areas would be covered through mobile outreach programs and therapy vans. Initially, the scheme will benefit approximately 8 million focus people in the state.
  • 2. Nutrition Monitoring Unit (NMU): The unit stands for strengthening management services of the ICDS Programme under ‘Sector Wide Approach to Strengthen Health (SWASTH)’ project funded by DFID-UK. The unit is responsible for facilitating the establishment process of UddepanKendras, the nodal AWCs. Uddepan is a cluster approach for nodal Anganwadi Centres. The approach will consolidate the AWCs by grouping them according to GP and stimulate activities at AWC especially for the under children 2 years. Another important activity of NMU is facilitation of roll-out of Integrated Performance Management System (IPMS). The goal of the IPMS is to enable Bihar to achieve desired nutrition and health outcomes for children and mothers. The unit is also facilitating the state wide campaign called BalKuposhanMukta Bihar (BKMB). The campaign has an objective to bring down childhood malnutrition to below 30% by 2018 in Bihar. Major components of the campaign include- reconstitution of AWC level community management body as AnganwadiVikasSamiti (AVS) to enhance participation of beneficiaries and other stakeholders, introduction of egg in the menu of supplementary nutrition for all children, providing resources for purchase of new weighing scales, boiling of water and water filters for all AWCs, instituting a structured supervisory monitoring format and ensuring regular inspection visits, etc. These steps are directed towards reducing child malnutrition leading to reduction in child mortality rate.
  • 3. Bihar State Social Security Schemes: Under the Control of Directorate of Social Security and Disability, Dept. of Social Welfare, Govt. of Bihar. Allocated fund under the Scheme is provided to SSUPSW against the Pre-receipt Bill from the Directorate of Social Security and Disability, Bihar. The received fund of the schemes is made available to the districts through Account Transfer (RTGS/NEFT) as per direction of the Directorate of Social Security and Disability. The districts mobilize the fund of the scheme on the basis of the directions given by the Directorate of Social Security and Disability
  • 3.1 MukhyamantriBhikshavritiNivaranYojana (MBNY): Government of Bihar has introduced MBNY (publicly known as ‘Pehchan’) with a visionto protect and promote the rights of beggars by ensuring their care, protection, development, socio-economic and cultural empowerment through enabling policies and programs. Currently, the scheme is covering eight districts of the state. Its main activities are-operation of male/ female rehabilitation homes, facilitating beggars’ access to the benefits of government programs, organisation of identified beggars into self-help groups (SHGs), imparting functional literacy and vocational training to the beggars, rescue and rehabilitation of child beggars, legal and medical aid to the identified beggars. The interventions aim at beggary prevention and vulnerability reduction leading to a dignified life of the ultra-poor in the long run. MBNY unit of SAKSHAM is working in collaboration with its Knowledge Strategic Partner-‘Koshish’ which is a field action project of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.SSUPSW directly implements this scheme.
  • 3.2 MukhyamantriViklangShashaktikaranYojna – “SAMBAL”( An Integrated Scheme for PwDs), to implement various articles of The PersonswithDisabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995,andto protect & promote the rights of Persons with Disability (PwDs), an Integrated Scheme – SAMBAL has been approved in 2012. SAMBAL has three (03) major components to empower PwDs - Educational Rehabilitation, Economic Rehabilitation and Social Rehabilitation. Major heads of SABMAL :
    • 3.2.1 Disable Scholarship
    • 3.2.2 Artificial Limbs / Appliances
    • 3.2.3 Survey, Certification and Training
    • 3.2.4 Education and self-employment loan
    • 3.2.5 Day care school for Mentally Disabled (Govt. aided): Presently running in two districts by NGO
    • 3.2.6 Up- gradation of Govt. Special Schools
    • 3.2.7 Shelter for mentally challenge ‘SAKET’ (for male) and ‘ASHIYANA’ (for female)
  • 3.3 Old Age Home – ‘SAHARA’: Initially Old Age Home is running in 5 districts by NGO.
  • 3.4 Social Security pension Schemes: The state Govt. provides monthly financial assistance to the eligible candidate. The scale of benefit and eligibility for various schemes of Bihar Social Security Pension Scheme is under the control of Govt. of Bihar.
    • 3.4.1 Bihar Nishaktta Pension (Bihar Disability Pension for Persons withdisability)
    • 3.4.2 RajyaSamajikSurakshaPension (State Social Security Pension for Older Persons).
    • 3.4.3 LaxmiBaiSamajikSuraksha Pension (LaxmiBai Social Security Pension for Widows)
    • 3.4.4 Bihar ShatabdiKushtaKayanyojna: Monthly assistance is provided to the Leprosy cured patients ofgrade II deformity.
    • 3.4.5 Bihar ShatabdiAidsPiditKalyanYojna :Monthly assistance, free medical treatment and rehabilitation is provided to the Aids affected patient.
  • 3.5 Grant –in– aid Schemes:
    • 3.5.1 KabirAnteyeshtiAnudanYojana (KAAY):Provides one time grant of Rs. 3000/- to BPL families to undertake last rites (funeral / burial rituals) in case of death of a familymember.
    • 3.5.2 MukhyamantriParivarLabhYojna (Family Benefit Scheme):Provides one time grant to the bereaved household in case of accidental death of any “primary breadwinner” or death of a person caused by criminal acts of 18-64 years of age.
  • 4. National Social Assistance Programme – NSAP (Govt. of India Scheme) :National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) as a fully funded Govt. of India Sponsored Scheme targeting the destitute, defined as any person who has little or no regular means of subsistence from his / her own source of income or through financial support from family members or other sources, to be identified by the States and UTs, with the objective of providing a basic level of financial support. The scale of benefit and eligibility for various schemes of NSAP is under the control of Govt. of India.
    • 4.1.1 Indira Gandhi RashtriyeNishaktta Pension (Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension (IGNDP).
    • 4.1.2 Indira Gandhi RashtriyeVridha Pension (Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension – IGNOAP)
    • 4.1.3 Indira Gandhi RashtriyeVidhva Pension (Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension- IGNWP)
  • 5. Grant – in – aid Scheme: RashtriyeParivarLabhYojna(National Family Benefit Scheme):Provides one time grant/assistanceto the bereaved household in the event of death (natural or otherwise) of the bread-winner of 18-60 years of age. The National family benefit will be paid to such surviving member of the household ofthe deceased poor, who after local inquiry, is found to be the head of thehousehold.

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