The Union Cabinet approved the establishment of the Bharat Rural Livelihood Foundation (BRLF) as an independent society to support livelihood programs and civil society organizations working with rural communities, especially in tribal areas. The BRLF will be funded with Rs. 500 crore and partner with the government, private philanthropies, and public/private sector companies through corporate social responsibility programs. It aims to reach 1 million poor families by its fifth year of operation and support capacity building for 1,000 civil society professionals and smaller organizations. The initial focus will be on 170 districts across 9 states with large tribal populations.

1. Setting up of the Bharat Rural
Livelihood Foundation
(BRLF)
Rabindra nath Nayak

2. 
The Union Cabinet today approved the proposal for setting up of the Bharat Rural Livelihood
Foundation (BRLF) as an independent charitable society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 to
facilitate and upscale civil society action in partnership with Government for transforming
livelihoods and lives of rural households, with an emphasis on women, particularly in the Central
Indian Tribal Region.

It will provide financial grants to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to meet their human resource
and institutional costs for upscaling of proven interventions; invest in institutional strengthening of
smaller CSOs and capacity building of professional resources working at the grassroots.

Projects supported by BRLF would be able to reach 10 lakh poor families by the end of the fifth year.
BRLF would also have supported the capacity building of 1,000 CSO professionals and institutional
strengthening of a significant number of smaller CSOs within the above time frame.

Even though BRLF will have an India wide mandate, the initial focus of the organization will be on the
Central Indian Tribal Region, centered on blocks having significant tribal population across 170
districts in the States of Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Rs 500 crore will be released for creating the corpus fund of the new Society, in two tranches. The
society will be constituted as a partnership between Government on the one hand and private sector
philanthropies, private and public sector undertakings (under Corporate Social Responsibility) on
the other hand.

The proposal was earlier considered by Cabinet on 18th April 2013 and referred to a Group of
Ministers under chairmanship of the Finance Minister. The GoM in its meeting held on 21st August
2013 has recommended the proposal.

3. 
The Congress-led United progressive Alliance (UPA) government has approved the establishment of
an independent society for “transforming livelihoods and lives of rural households, with an emphasis
on women” in tribal areas.

On Tuesday, the cabinet approved a proposal to set up the Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation
(BRLF) with a corpus of Rs 500 crore in partnership between the government and private sector
philanthropic organizations, besides private and public sector undertakings, under their Corporate
Social Responsibility initiatives.

This is aimed at ensuring the “smooth flow and utilization of government funds to rural communities
and poor households under the centrally-sponsored schemes for promoting livelihoods of the
poor”, the government said.

Once it becomes operational, the BRLF would have reached 1 million poor families.

The UPA won back-to-back general elections in 2004 and 2009 by promising to ensure that rural
areas and the poor receive their fare share of the dividend from India’s rapid economic growth.

It has put in place an entitlement-based regime, including the recently passed food security law that
will provide subsidized foodgrain to 67% of Indians and a programme promising 100 days of manual
labour to at least one member of every rural household.

4. 
The next general election is due to take place by May 2014.

The BRLF proposal was passed by the cabinet committee on economic affairs along with two other
programmes to boost employability and increase availability of low-cost homes for the urban poor.

According to a recent cabinet note prepared by the rural development ministry that was reviewed
by Mint, tribal communities in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, West
Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan have not received their share of the
dividend from India’s economic growth and “perform poorly on every indicator of wellbeing, whether it be economic well-being, health or education”.

The 12th five-year plan ( 2012-17) emphasizes faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth and the
government is investing large amount of resources in these areas, the note says.

But the “full benefits of these legislations, plans and schemes can only be realized by the poor when
they, especially the tribal communities, are organized, are aware of their rights and entitlements
and have the requisite capacities to plan and implement livelihood”, it says.

The support provided to civil society organizations (CSOs) will be both financial and non-financial or
facilitation support, the cabinet note says. The BRLF will fund broadly three kinds of interventions—
human resource and institutional costs of CSOs; institutional strengthening of smaller CSOs; and
building a large pool of development professionals, the cabinet note says.

5. 




Planning Commission member Mihir Shah will be president of a rural
development ministry-initiated foundation that will support proposals
from non-governmental organizations seeking to leverage funds through
existing government programmes for their implementation.
The Bharat Rural Livelihood Foundation (BRLF), which will be set up as an
autonomous registered society following the Cabinet’s approval on 3
September, plans to support availability of funds for projects by
combining funding from the government, financial institutions and
corporate social responsibility (CSR) budgets of companies.
“Private philanthropies, public and private sector undertakings and
others will be encouraged to partner with the BRLF,” said the letter
inviting Shah to lead the society in his private capacity.
The new company law recommends spending 2% of corporate profits on
CSR.
It asks companies with a net worth of more than Rs.500 crore or
revenue of more than Rs.1,000 crore or net profit of more than Rs.5
crore to spend 2% of their average net profit over the three preceding
years on CSR activities.

6. Dr. Mihir Shah
 Member, Planning Commission,
Government of India.
 Tel. No.: (Off.) 23096756,
2309 6620/96/90 Extn. 2619;
(Fax) +91-011-23096774;
Email: mihir[dot]shah[at]nic[dot]in
 http://planningcommission.nic.in/about
us/history/mirishah.htm


7. 
http://www.thehindu.com/news/nationa
l/private-sector-for-livelihood-initiativein-adivasi-districts/article3315406.ece