The Centre and the Bihar Government today signed an agreement with the World Bank for 100 million US dollar additional credit to scale-up the ongoing Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project, Jeevika.The Project is aimed at enhancing the social and economic empowerment of the rural poor in Bihar. According to release issued by Ministry of Finnace, the additional financing will help consolidate and expand the Project to cover all the blocks in the existing six districts covered under the Project. This will not only allow the Project to cover all the villages in the existing districts, but also provide a comprehensive district wide model for poverty alleviation in Bihar. The Project has initiated a number of interventions on a pilot basis through convergence with other government programs and enabled access to public entitlements for the poor.These include access to social security pensions for nearly 29,000 households in partnership with the social welfare department and access to wage employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in partnership with the rural development department for nearly 5000 Self Help Group women.””