Bihar hires 85 young professionals to its livelihood project

Patna: For the first time, Bihar has hired hired 85 young professionals, all fresh post-graduates of India’s top ranking management and social sciences institutes, to help in implementing a livelihood project for the poorest sections living in rural areas, officials Thursday said. Bihar Rural Development Minister Nitish Mishra said young professionals have been recruited by the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS), an independent body set up by the government, to help in implementing the World Bank-supported Jeevika project in the state. The BRLPS has recruited them at salaries ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 60,000 per month. Besides, they would be given several other benefits at par with the corporate world, officials said. [caption id=“attachment_297396” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The new recruits will be paid salaries ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 60,000 per month.”]  [/caption] The BRLPS has picked up 19 students of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), 15 from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, 12 from Xavier Institute of Social Sciences, 10 from KIIT (Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology) School of Rural Management, nine from Institute of Forest Management, and three from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. The Rural Livelihoods Project has been designed to address rural poverty in Bihar through the collaboration of the poor, the Bihar government and the World Bank, he said. Mishra said there were 1.26 crore below poverty line families in the state which formed 55 percent of its total population. “Ten lakh Self Help Groups would be formed in the state in the next five years to weed out poverty. As a first measure, five lakh SHGs would be constituted which would benefit 1.25 crore poor families,” he said. IANS