Positive and negative effect of 4Ps Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program

Positive and negative effect of 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program)

Introduction

4P program stands for Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. It is a conditional cash transfer method that leads to positive and negative impact in the society. The CCT or conditional cash transfer method has made beneficiaries very much dependent on grants. On the other hand, the money collected will get diverted to organizing livelihood programs that in turns result in improvement in food productivity.

This program ensures children to attend school, get vaccination, deworming, and other regular types of health check-ups. 4Ps currently operates in around seventy-nine provinces that covers around 143 major cities and 1484 municipalities spread across seventeen regions countrywide. Let us see more on the positive and negative influence of 4Ps program on people.

Positive and negative effect of 4Ps Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program

Positive impact of 4Ps program

The CCT program or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program began in the year 2007. It was held under the administration of Arroyo on an experimental basis with the support of nearly six thousand households. This program expanded under the “Aquino administration” in the year 2016. It enhanced the benefits of the program by making it available to 4.5 million households. Under this program, cash grants are provided to poor households that have children in the age group of 0 to 18 years. They can use this money specifically on health and education.

The 4P Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is all over accredited for its contribution towards reduction of poverty. At the beginning of this program, poverty incidence rose from 24.8% to 26.8% in just three years from 2006 to 2009.

The “National Economic Development Authority” attributed 4Ps for the improvement of the life standards of people. This program effectively targeted the poorest section of the population. It provided support to the deprived households in urban as well as rural regions.

CCT not just grants money to the poor but also makes him independent by teaching him how to earn money. It is required to provide an occupation like fishing that is going to feed him throughout the lifetime. It is one of the ways to allure them to learn how to make livelihood without worrying about feeding their families. So, first this program educates and trains poor people so that they can make their living.

CCT puts a lot of effort in addressing severe poverty. It does by investing on the children and assuring that whoever enrolls in this program finishes their high school. This program even enhances the prospects of children to obtain graduation and secure employment. In this way, CCT program contributes a lot towards making children and people financial independent.

There are nearly 10.2 million children who are presently getting benefitted from this program. In April 2018, around 2 lakh beneficiaries got graduated from high school. The Cash conditional transfer employed under 4P program provide livelihood via the “Sustainable Livelihood Program” that provide appropriate training and employment after evaluating their abilities.

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program offer grants in the form of cash to poor households. Various national government organizations, in order to maximize the profits achieved due to success of CCT, have started offering full college scholarships. This is given to more and more children eligible under CCT approved households.

Negative effect of 4Ps

4P program doesn’t have many negative impacts. One of the key adverse effect is seen in the form of fewer workers in the agricultural sector. This is due to the mechanization. The anti-poverty cash transfer on conditional scheme offer poor people in countryside with monthly cash allowance for health and education, but it negatively impacts rural productivity.

One of the common complaints among rice farmers is that the province doesn’t provide enough agricultural workers now. This problem is seen is almost all maize and rice production areas. This lack of farmers for the harvesting and planting purpose will impact the budget planning.

To overcome these issues, it is required that “Department of Social Welfare and Development” should undertake corrective measures by allocating more infrastructure and funds in agricultural sector in the form of transplanters, tractors, dryers and harvesters. The increasing mechanization in the agricultural sector should be taken into consideration that has replaced farmers by machines.

Also, the denial of the beneficiaries 4Ps program to commence hard farm work as they now get regular financial assistance from government can be seen in two major ways.

  • It is a sign of the liberation of the farmers from all the hard farm tasks that used to offer them unfair wages.
  • Secondly, it is a danger that indicates increasing mindset of mendicancy of poor families who obtain regular allowances and an extra amount for rice allowance as well.

The 4Ps program gives rise to corruption in poor areas where the ATM cards of beneficiaries are monitored by local government officials who grant their families regular “cash advances”. They will then later get a “cut” of the money of poor families.

Alan Behrens

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