The World Bank has decided to fund a Bihar livelihood project for helping the empowerment of poor in the state.
World Bank India country director Michael Carter told rediff.com at Patna on Saturday that the Bihar Rural Livelihood Project would be launched in September 2006.
State chief secretary G S Kang confirmed it. Kang said the World Bank was agreed in principle to fund the project.
Carter is part of a visiting World Bank team to Bihar to identify the challenges and opportunities in the state, and to identify solutions accordingly.
The project aims to assist the Bihar government in empowering the rural poor and improving their livelihoods and developing and strengthening institutions of the poor.
Besides, building and establishing pro-poor savings promotion and livelihood support organisations and financing livelihood business plans and investing in increasing the size of livelihood economy for the poor.
Kang said that the Bihar Livelihood Project is one of the several projects to be launched in state with constructive cooperation and participation by the World Bank.
According to a World Bank report on Bihar nearly 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, the highest in India. Its poverty gap, which measures the depth of poverty, is far above the national average.
