Abstract:
Purpose: Many low- and middle-income countries implement a poverty alleviation
programme to eradicate poverty and achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
by 2030. cash transfer program, considered safety nets for the low-income population.
The Aswesuma cash transfer initiative, launched as a social protection mechanism,
aims to alleviate poverty and improve living standards through direct cash transfers
to low income families. This study mainly aims to assess households’ perception of
the Aswesuma cash transfer program in the Ankumbura area, Poojapitiya Divisional
Secretariat.
Design/methodology/approach: This study selected 100 samples from the
Aswesuma beneficiaries of Ankumbura area using a simple random sampling
method. The primary data were collected through a questionnaire and interview
period from July 2023 to July 2024. This study applied the arithmetic mean method
Likert scale (5) such as 5-strogly agree, 4-agree, 3-nututal, 2-disagree and 1-strogly
disagree to identify awareness among Aswesuma recipients, used factors such as rural
development, Community development, financial stability, Health condition,
Samurdhi beneficiary, school attendance of children, Investment in livelihood
activities and data is collected through Likert scale data collection and descriptive
method to analyze trends for utilization of amount of Aswesuma, investment in
livelihood activities, changes in living standard of family of Aswesuma recipients,
education expenditure, health expenditure, housing improvements, Samurdhi
beneficiary analyzed mixed methods with SPSS – 23 and Excel tools
Findings: This study found that most of the Aswesuma recipients utilized the cash
for more consumption, less investment in livelihood (91%) and poor financial
security, not that much change in education and health expenditure, poor housing
condition. More than half of the Samurdhi beneficiary received the Aswesuma Cash
transfer. Likert scale of Arithmetic means, more than 50 % of the Recipients revealed, that
they disagree with livelihood activities, rural infrastructure development, community
development and not enough cash transfer amount for households’ investment in
livelihood and activities of saving group of Samurdhi
Practical implications: In this study suggest that the increasing the cash transfer
amount for Aswesuma recipients and encourage to invest in income generating
sources. This Aswesuma program did not have any infrastructure development
phenomena. Policymakers can consider poor people to implementing a conditional
cash transfer system rather the unconditional Aswesuma cash transfer for human
development index (HDI), and also beneficiaries should be regular monitoring and
evaluation to measure the success of the poverty alleviation program.
Originality value: This study contributes to monitoring and evaluating of newly
implementing Aswesuma cash transfer for each type of category for poor people in
the particular time period.
