World Bank grants USD 125m loan to help poor access social protection services in WB
World Bank grants USD 125m loan to help poor access social protection services in WB
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The World Bank's Executive Board of Directors granted a USD125 million loan to the Government of West Bengal today to support the state's efforts to improve access to social protection services for the poor and vulnerable.

The epidemic of COVID-19 has stressed the importance of focusing on strengthening state government skills to provide inclusive and equitable social protection in times of crisis. West Bengal, India's easternmost state, runs more than 400 programmes that provide social aid, health care, and employment. The majority of these services are provided by Jai Bangla, an umbrella platform.

The West Bengal Building State Capability for Inclusive Social Protection Operation would support these interventions at the state level, with a focus on vulnerable populations such as women, tribal and scheduled caste households, the elderly, and those in disaster-prone coastal districts.

According to a recent poll, while food and in-kind transfers reach the majority of West Bengal's poor and vulnerable households, cash transfers have a limited reach. Due to lengthy application processes and a lack of automated methods for application and eligibility verification, access to social pensions is particularly limited for the elderly, widowed, and disabled.

The operation will help increase the state's ability to expand coverage and access to social assistance, as well as distribute cash transfers to the poor and vulnerable, over the following four years, through a unified social register.

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