At a press conference on Monday in the conference room of the Department of Information at the Secretariat, he said that family cards and allowances will be provided gradually to ensure the empowerment, economic independence and social security of women-headed households. From today, household-based data collection has started across the country by visiting door to door.

The minister said 66,615 data collectors and 6,681 supervisors have been assigned to the data collection work. They will collect information using specialized tablets and submit it directly to an online database.

He said beneficiaries will be selected by assessing the socio-economic status of households using the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' updated Proxy Means Test (PMT) method. Although all women-headed households will receive family cards, specified eligibility will apply for receiving allowances.

In the current fiscal year 2026-27, a target has been set to provide family cards and allowances to 4 million women-headed households. For this, of the total allocation of Tk 14,000 crore, Tk 12,000 crore has been kept as allowances. There are plans to gradually bring all eligible women-headed households under the programme in the next three fiscal years.

The minister further said the family card will include dual chip, QR code and NFC technology. In addition, facilities have been made to withdraw allowances through agent banking and mobile financial services such as bKash, Rocket, Upay and Tap.

State Minister Farzana Sharmin, the ministry's secretary and other senior officials were present at the press conference.