Members of Rashtriya Mahila Brigade take out a protest march against corruption in the country on the eve of International Women’s Day at Dakbungalow Chowk in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

The rural development department would do the credit-linking of over 10,000 women self-help groups from nine districts of the state in Patna on March 9 — a day after International Women’s Day.

The credit-linkage would enable around 1 lakh women associated with the groups to get various types of loans from a number of banks in hassle-free manner. The credit-linkage is being done under Jeevika initiative of the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, an independent organisation set up by the state and supported by the World Bank.

The credit-linkage would be done in the presence of chief minister Nitish Kumar at SK Memorial Hall on March 9.

“Around 2,000 women associated with 10,000 Jeevika self-help groups in Gaya, Nalanda, Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Khagaria, Supaul, Madhepura, Saharsa and Purnea, would participate in the credit-linkage programme. It would enable women to avail loans over Rs 50 crore from the associated banks over a period. The department and Jeevika have been working rigorously over the past several months to identify the beneficiary women self-help groups and develop the credit-linkage network with the banks,” said Amrit Lal Meena, the principal secretary of rural development department.

Apart from the credit-linkage, around 8,000 children of women associated with Jeevika self-help groups would be given scholarship under Siksha Sahayog Yojana on the same day.

“Around 1.25 crore below poverty line (BPL) families have been identified across the state. We have set a target to associate women from these families with Jeevika by 2017. Accordingly, 80,000 self-help groups have been formed till date, among which 102 are running public distribution shops. These initiatives are aimed at improving the nutritional values and securing food for the women,” said Arvind Chaudhary, chief executive officer of Jeevika.