Madhubani (Bihar), Jan 11 (PTI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Wednesday praised initiatives taken by 'Jeevika Didis', women associated with self help groups under the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project.

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The programme has developed innovative community enterprise approaches aimed at improving income levels of rural women, he said.

The chief minister during his Samadhan Yatra in Madhubani district interacted with 'Jeevika Didis' and appreciated the work they are doing with the support of the state government.

“Through a range of livelihood interventions under Jeevika, women have been able to improve the economic situation of their families. They undertook various livelihood activities under the programme and products manufactured by them are being sold in other states as well as outside India," Kumar told reporters.

He instructed officials to ensure that 'Jeevika didis' benefit from all welfare schemes of the government.

“As women are learning to raise their voice to seek their rights and entitlements, they are also shifting the unequal power relations in their households and communities,” he said.

The Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project, popularly known as 'Jeevika' in Bihar, was launched in 2006 to reach 4,000 villages in 42 blocks in Gaya, Khagaria, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Nalanda and Purnia districts benefiting 590,000 households.

The main objective was to enhance the social and economic empowerment of the rural poor in Bihar.

In 2012 it received additional financing and was expanded to 60 blocks to reach a total of 102 blocks in these six districts and to mobilize 1.5 million rural women from poor households into more than 150,000 SHGs and 10,000 village organisations.

This large-scale mobilisation of over 1.8 million women gave a push to women's empowerment in the state, officials said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)