DFID project to benefit two lakh families in MP

Bhopal, June 16 (UNI) More than two lakh poor families spread over eight predominantly-tribal districts will be benefitted by the second phase of Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood Project, financed by the United Kingdom's Department For International Development (DFID).

The project's second phase, starting next month, will cover about 3,000 villages in addition to 822 villages already covered in the first phase that began in 2004 in tribal-dominated Badwani, Dhar, Jhabua, Mandla, Dindori, Anuppur, Shahdol and Sheopur districts.

DFID had allocated Rs 840 crore to Madhya Pradesh, including Rs 480 crore for a new health programme and Rs 360 crore for the second phase of the livelihood project. It is part of DFID's Rs 2000 crore assistance to India, official sources said.

Besides Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh are the other beneficiary states. For the new health programme, DFID aid to Orissa is about Rs 400 crore, while Rs 816 crore has been sanctioned for AIDS control programme in Andhra Pradesh.

The second phase strategies and action plans are being given final shape. The planning concentrates more on social protection of poor families.

The funds will be used to improve access to medical facilities and mobilise resources for health delivery systems at the grassroot level. The basic objective are to improve healthcare, admit children in primary schools and reduce poverty.

In Madhya Pradesh, the state government had initiated efforts to improve health infrastructure.

The poverty reduction strategy of working with Gram Sabhas in consultation with community members for sustainable livelihood, development planning, management of local resources and convergence with ongoing government schemes having the same objective had been widely appreciated, the sources said.

As part of the livelihood project, tribal women Panchs and Sarpanchs, lower level functionaries of the three-tier Panchayatiraj system, were given leadership training and were apprised of their rights as representatives of Panchayats, constitutional status of Gram Sabhas and government's welfare schemes. They visited the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly yesterday as part of the training.

UNI