Around 77 percent of Sri Lanka’s Aswesuma welfare beneficiaries have been included in empowerment programmes designed to move recipients out of cash dependence and into livelihood projects, the Department of Samurdhi Development said on Friday.
Director General Dhammika Muthugala said two pilot programmes running since 2023, financed separately by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, are the principal vehicles for the transition.
Under the World Bank programme, 10,975 Aswesuma beneficiary families have been selected for empowerment activities across 12 districts. The Department said roughly 40 percent of that target had been enrolled in the programme so far.
The Asian Development Bank is implementing a parallel pilot to empower 10,300 families in 13 districts. About 85 percent of that work has been completed, according to Muthugala.
Aswesuma is the National People’s Power government’s revamped welfare scheme, which replaced the long-running Samurdhi cash-transfer programme. The benefit cycle resumed in July 2025 after a household survey recalibrated the eligibility lists, and the Department has continued monthly cash transfers to a settled beneficiary base while moving to digitise enrolment and payment systems through the Finance Ministry’s Aswesuma overhaul.
The empowerment push is the central plank of the government’s framing that welfare should function as a temporary support, not an indefinite entitlement. Officials have repeatedly said the long-term aim is to transition recipients into skills training, micro-enterprise support and formal employment.
Source: NewsFirst
