Maharashtra Rural Livelihoods Innovation Forum, which is aimed to enable and empower the poor, was launched today by the state government to facilitate the implementation of the National Rural Livelihood Mission.
Claiming that the forum was an institutional architecture to enable and "empower" the poor to access better livelihoods and improve their standards of living, rural development minister Jayant Patil said that MRLF was a quest to find the most promising livelihoods initiative across the state.
"The Maharashtra Rural Livelihoods Innovation Forum (MRLF) would facilitate continuous integration of livelihoods innovations across sub-sectors," he said, adding that the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and the World Bank are technical partners of the MRLF.
In the first phase, two talukas each from districts like Gadchiroli, Jalna, Yavatmal and Nandurbar have been selected to "eradicate" poverty with the help of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), he said.
To prevent participation of bogus NGOs, co-ordinators would be appointed to oversee the initiative, he said.
