The government has allocated Tk 140 crore 11 lakh 8 thousand as the second instalment of its 2025-26 financial-year allowance to meet the food and basic needs of children in the country’s private orphanages.
After approval by the Ministry of Social Welfare, the money has been sanctioned for 116,759 orphan children in 4,209 private orphanages across 64 districts of the country.
The information was given recently in an office order signed by the Director General of the Department of Social Services, Shah Mohammad Mahbub.
The order said the money had been released as the second-instalment grant from the funds allocated to the “private orphanage” head in the 2025-26 budget.
The money has been entrusted to social-services officers and upazila or city social-services offices so that they can distribute it among the orphanages following the set policy.
According to the Department of Social Services, a total of Tk 280 crore has been allocated to the “private orphanage” head this financial year. Of this, Tk 139 crore 88 lakh 76 thousand was released in the first instalment.
With another Tk 140 crore 11 lakh 8 thousand sanctioned in the second instalment, the entire allocation has effectively been brought under distribution.
According to the allocation, the 116,759 orphan children living in registered private orphanages will be given a six-month grant at the rate of Tk 2,000 a month.
That is, a total of Tk 12,000 has been set aside for each child for the period from January to June 2026.
This money will mainly be spent on buying food and meeting the children’s basic living needs.
The Department of Social Services said the government had long run a state-grant programme to ensure the welfare and protection of orphan children. Under it, financial support is given to meet the food, nutrition and other basic needs of children living in registered private orphanages, creating an opportunity for society’s disadvantaged and parentless children to grow up in a safe environment.
The office order also said the “Government Grant Allocation and Distribution Policy, 2014” must be strictly followed in distributing the money. The social-services officers concerned have been directed to oversee the release and use of the money according to the set rules, and regular field-level monitoring has been mentioned to ensure the allocated money is spent properly.
Those concerned consider such support for orphan children under social-safety programmes very important. In their view, many orphanages in the country are run with limited financial capacity, so the government grant works as major support for these institutions. It plays an important role, especially in meeting food costs, ensuring nutrition and maintaining children’s daily standard of living.
Officials of the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Department of Social Services expressed hope that timely distribution of the allocated money would have a positive impact on improving the lives of thousands of orphan children across the country, and that the grant would also contribute significantly to meeting the running costs of private orphanages.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report