A Bihar Government-supported project on empowerment of the rural poor today organised a road show here to select high impact social innovators who can improve livelihoods in villages.
Bihar Innovation Forum (BIF), an initiative of Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS), would offer financial and implementation support to anyone from 35 finalists (organisations) to be shortlisted by it from across the country whose innovative models assessed by an independent jury are found fit for roll out in Bihar.
The organisations are to be selected from across eight thematic areas.
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"Through this 2nd BIF, we are looking to give high impact innovations of organisations in India a unique platform to reach out to the poor in Bihar," said Rajiv Kumar Singh of Bihar Rural Livelihood Project (BRLP), which is also called 'Jeevika' and is implemented by BRLPS.
Jeevika is designated as State Rural Livelihoods Mission (SRLM) to roll out National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in Bihar. BIF, an initiative of Bihar Government, was launched through BRLP in collaboration with the State Innovation Council.
BIF-II will focus on high impact innovations in eight livelihood themes - agriculture, livestocks, rural energy, skill development, financial services, access to entitlements, access to services, ICT-based solutions that can lead to sustainable and scalable rural livelihoods.
Over the last six years, Jeevika has focused on developing community-centric ecosystem. Over one million households have been organised into various kinds of membership-based organisations such as self-help groups.
"The number is expected to reach 15 million households, or about 60 million people, over the next five years," Singh said.
Jeevika has a team of around 139 professional hired from premier management institutes like Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), IIM-A and IIT-B, amongst others, who work at block level.