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Sl. No. Page No.

1. Winning Together : 1

2. Kudumbashree - Crossing the Barriers of Poverty

: 3

3. Fighting poverty at grass root level : 13

4. We acted while they debated on poverty

: 19

5. Micro Financing and Linkage Banking

: 30

6. Information Technology Winning Tool for the Poor Women

: 35

7. 50K Employment for Educated Youth : 40

8. Direct marketing - Cakewalk for Kudumbashree

: 47

9. Community Health Volunteer : 49

10. Sichithra, differently abled today : 52

11. Micro Housing- A Sweet Dream : 57

12. S3 (Self sufficient, Self reliant, Sustainable) Model Panchayats

: 59

13. Balasabha for Empowerment of Children

: 62

14. Women Empowerment - Kudumbashree Model

: 65

15. What makes Kudumbashree unique? : 68

Contents

Kudumbashree

Winning togetherSaga of Kudumbashree tells about more life than mere statistics. It has

altered lives of poor women in the state, changed their perception, rebuilt their confidence, boosted their morale, rediscovered their dignity and honour, empowered them economically, socially and politically. Today 3.1 million poor women participate in the Kudumbashree movement in the state cutting across political ideologies and religious faiths.

They found new hope and new meaning in their lives while working with Kudumbashree. It would not have been possible if they had not listened to us and believed our programmes. They had heard many of the poverty eradication programmes earlier too and tried all of them and miserably failed in their attempts. They were all skeptical about so called poverty eradication programmes chalked out by both Union and state governments. An element of cynicism could have killed the mission and its approach. But they believed us and we are on the winning path of historical landmark of eradicating absolute poverty in the state of Kerala. I’m grateful to all Kudumbashree members who worked together to make the mission a great success.

From our experience I found that believing means happening. We all started chasing the dream of poverty eradication from nowhere. Many had done it in the past. But our approach and methodology was different and novel. Within six years the State Poverty Eradication Mission has achieved many landmarks and global recognition. But we are not satisfied with the results.

We will work together till the poor get equitable opportunities in all walks of life that will empower them socially, economically and politically. After six years working in Kudumbashree, I’m confidant that we can materialize our dream tomorrow.

It was by sheer accident that I stumbled upon Kudumbashree, State poverty Eradication Mission of Kerala. I was posted as Managing Director of Matsyafed, a governmental agency for the development and welfare of traditional fishermen in Kerala in 1993 May. During my tenure as Managing Director, I got an opportunity to associate with the activities of Community Development Society of Alappuzha Municpality that was experimenting the pilot programme in seven wards of the Municipality.

Matsyafed supported this programme with active participation of fishermen community who benefited largely out of it. I witnessed the changes taking place in the fishermen community as the programme was participatory in essence and need based in practice.

Later I was posted to Malappuram as District Collector and District Magistrate as a part of my field posting. Malappuram is the most backward and most populous district of Kerala where poor remained to be poor and social development was very slow compared to other districts of Kerala. My predecessors Shri. Rajeev Sadanandan and Shri. James Varghese initiated a Community Based Nutrition and Poverty Alleviation Programme in the district which was in the beginning stage. I decided to strengthen the programme with new strategy and tools. It was a thrilling experience in my career. I learnt more from the poor women of Malappuram than from the lecture halls of great institutions I have attended as a student and an I.A.S. probationer.

Kudumbashree - An Innovative Poverty Reduction Strategy 1

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They were ready to work to any extent to save their families from poverty. They demanded only little support from me. Their determination motivated me to spare more time for their activities. Despite busy schedules as head of the district administration, I tried to attend their meetings more frequently and mingled with them freely. Their stories sometimes astonished me; sometimes angered me; and sometimes terrified me. Those stories were full of life with tears and agony. They were fighting a losing battle against poverty everyday. Within no time these poor women mobilized Rs. 15 million as thrift amount. They saved small amounts of money to mop up big amount. They were all happy to lend it to the most needy. Their unity and sense of justice surprised me.

I visited a Neighbourhood group when they were discussing the distribution of loan among the group members. One old woman who took Rs. 1,000 as loan returned the amount when she found that her neighbour required the amount urgently as her son was hospitalized.

"Why did you give back your sanctioned amount?" I asked

"My neighbour needs it today and I can wait for another week", she replied with a smile.

Her selflessness and sense of comradeship impressed me. I found these poor women share great idealism while remaining as poor.

One year of My experience in Malappuram CBNP prompted me to think of scaling up of the programme. I wrote to Government of Kerala, requesting to expand the programme to entire state for the benefit of the poor. Next year, in 1997, the state government decided to scale it up as Kudumbashree.

During this period I was shifted to Idukki as District Collector and District Magistrate and I continued to reciprocate the Malappuram model there too.

When the state constituted the Poverty Eradication Mission in 1998, I was asked to head the Mission and working in Kudumbashree for the last six years.

It is the most challenging job for me in my civil service career as Kudumbashree is expanding its area of operations from micro-credit to Ashraya, destitute programme designed to provide need based support to the poorest of the poor. Kudumbashree team with the help of Community development Society identified the poorest of the poor through a survey that opened our eyes. When we discussed their stories in our PRM, the Kudumbashree team members raised a valid question : how can we improve their quality of lives?. Discussions on this question inspired us to chalk out Ashraya which is implemented in 296 Panchayaths in Kerala today.

Today, I feel happy being in Kudumbashree and part of a winning team.

T.K Jose I.A.SExecutive Director

Kudumbashree


Kudumbashree

KUDUMBASHREE - Crossing the Barriers of Poverty

Kudumbashree, the State Poverty Eradication Mission, launched by Government of Kerala for wiping out absolute poverty from the State within a period of 10 years is a holistic, participatory, women oriented innovative overarching poverty reduction approach. This process is implemented through Local Self Governments formed and empowered by the 73rd & 74th Constitutional Amendments. The Mission follows a process approach rather than a project approach. 'Kudumbashree' envisages prosperity of the poor families in the state with multiple programmes that will provide them information, create awareness, build up their capability and capacity, enhance their confidence and show them opportunity for better social security and empower them physically, socially, economically and politically. Kudumbashree, the state poverty eradication mission of Kerala was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India, Shri. Atal Behari Vajapayee in Kottakunnu Ground in Malappuram district of Kerala on 1998 May 17 and started implementing from 1999 April 1 in Urban Local Bodies of the state.

Since the inception of the planning process in the country different methodologies were in use for eradication of poverty. The trickle down theory, direct attack on poverty, land reforms, etc were some of the examples. But despite all the initiatives, there was no significant achievement in the poverty scenario of the country. The poor remained as poor. At least in some cases the poor has become poorer.

In the post independence era in fact there is no dearth of programmes and projects to tackle the poverty situation prevailing in the country. But all the programmes are designed and developed at the whims and fancies of the bureaucrats and followed a top down approach. These programmes were supply driven and not need based and demand driven. The magnitude of poverty, causes of poverty, variables of poverty were not taken in to account. The perception of poverty itself was ambiguous and vague. The estimation of poverty was inaccurate, insufficient and directionless. The only factor that based for determining poverty was income. That too based on the purchasing capacity of the family to procure food. The aspirations of the poor, the basic needs of the poor, the levels of deprivations of the poor were not considered and someone else took decision on his entitlement. If 'development without participation is a sin' (Prof. Amartyasen), the erstwhile anti poverty programmes are sins of development.


Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not being able to go to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation

Kudumbashree

In the past decade, the most significant act of Government towards the poor was the 73rd & 74th Amendment of the Constitution, which paved the way for decentralization of powers. Resultantly the eradication of poverty has become the inevitable responsibility of the local self-governments. This enabled the poor to realize the presence of Government in their vicinity. In this context in Kerala a Mission was set up to facilitate the local self governments in its anti poverty initiatives.

The Mission Statement

"To eradicate absolute poverty in ten years through concerted community action under the leadership of Local Governments, by facilitating organisation of poor for combining self help with demand led convergence of available services and resources to tackle the multiple dimensions and manifestation of poverty holistically"

Perception of poverty

The State Poverty Eradication Mission perceives poverty as a state of multiple deprivations. Unlike the conventional poverty theories and practices, the monetary factors are not the only contributory to poverty but it is due to the deprivation of basic needs, basic facilities and basic rights. To eradication of absolute poverty means restoration of the denied or deprived basic needs, basic facilities and basic rights.

There are several out-liers of the 'Kerala model' who are still very poor and deserve special support. They are the tribals, traditional fishermen, Scheduled Castes and groups of people employed in certain declining traditional industries like coir, cashew, handloom, stone-crushing.

The number of practically landless poor is very high in Kerala. Since land reforms was implemented more than a generation ago, the homesteads given to nearly three lakh families have now been partitioned or sold out and a large number of the poor have nothing more than their house plots. So the conventional strategy of improving land productivity would not be of much direct benefit to the poor.

The phenomenon of educated poor is very peculiar to Kerala. A large number of the poor have completed high school education and passed the school final examination. But in the competitive job market they get left out. Wage employment is of no use to them,


Kudumbashree

most of them lack the entrepreneurial talent for self employment and they are not skilled enough for the current day job market. Capacity building of this group is a major challenge.

The falling agriculture labour opportunities and the shrinkage of government job prospects has further complicated the poverty situation.

The quality of the products of twin strategies behind Kerala's development success viz., health and education is on the decline particularly in the public sector. This has placed a lot of burden on the poor and has important ramifications in determining an antipoverty strategy

Basic Needs

The basic minimum needs include food, shelter and clothing. Every human being on earth are entitled to safe food, shelter and clothing. But how far this entitlement is a reality in our situation ? At least a 350 millions soul in our country are deprived of food and greater number deprived of shelter. The 'saree' episodes during election campaigns are revelations of the need for clothing. In Kerala situation 2% of the families who live in utter distress and despair have not even two square meals a day. With regard to shelter, 8.26 lakhs families live in dilapidated structures, huts or without houses.

Basic facilities

The basic facilities include education, employment, safe drinking water, safe sanitation facilities, health, transport, satisfactory environment etc. It is a fact that the poor always live in the margins of society and are denied access to these basic facilities. Kerala has a good record of literacy and cent percent children are enrolled in the primary classes. But do they reach the tenth standard, the crucial point of education in life? Statistics show that 18% of the children enrolled in primary classes are reaching the tenth standard and there are dropouts. No doubt the drop out children, students who fail in the tenth standard etc are hailing from poor families. Denial of access to education keeps the family in poverty and it help transmission of poverty from one generation to the other. The other basic facilities such as employment, safe drinking water, safe sanitation facilities, health, transport, satisfactory environment etc are also have a strong bearing on poverty.

Basic Rights


'If people lack or are denied resources to obtain access to diet, amenities, services and activities which are common or customary in society or to meet the obligations expected of them or imposed upon them in their social roles and relationships and so fulfill membership of society they may be said to be in poverty' - Townsend 1993

Kudumbashree

Freedom of expression, equal opportunities, social acceptance, participation in the making of decisions etc is the basic rights entitled to every individual or family. But how far it is available to the poor? The poor also enjoys the right to expression but the voice of the poor reaches at deaf ears and practically the poor become voiceless. With regard to opportunities always the poor are sidelined and the able and efficient snatch away the opportunities of the poor. Capability deprivation is one of the root causes of poverty.

As mentioned above eradication of absolute poverty means restoration of the denied or deprived basic needs, basic facilities and basic rights and not by giving doles of charity.

Innovation in Identifying Poor and Estimating Poverty

In conventional anti poverty programmes the poor are identified using income as the sole parameter. This too is done through a household survey conducted by the Officials. In Kudumbashree to identify the poor instead of the income criteria, nine point non-monetary risk indicators have been designed and developed.

The 'nine point risk indicators' are very simple, transparent, easily understood by the community includes various manifestations of poverty. Unlike in the conventional anti poverty programmes it enables to identify the poor by themselves, provides large possible combinations of Poverty. 382 different Combinations (Table-1) of finding a poor family and provides the opportunity to have a rational grading and to find out corrective steps. To identify the poor the intervention of the official is removed and the task is entrusted with the community themselves.

Table-1Nine Point index - possible combinations

No. of Risk factors Combinations4 Risk Factors 1265 Risk Factors 1266 Risk Factors 847 Risk Factors 368 Risk Factors 99 Risk Factors 1

Total 382


Kudumbashree

Risk IndexThe risk index as an effective tool to identify poor was first

developed in the early stages of community development system, tried and experimented at 7 wards of Alappuzha Municipality. This index was subsequently modified to suite the current day requirements. The original index and modified versions are given below:

9 point index developed in 1992.

1. Living in a substandard house or hut2. No access to sanitary latrines3. No access to safe drinking water (150 Mts)4. Getting only 2 meals a day or less5. Having children below 5 years of age6. Having no or only one earning member7. Belonging to socially disadvantaged groups8. Having an illiterate adult member9. Having alcoholics or drug addicts

Modified risk index now in use Rural Urban

1. Living in a substandard house or hut

2. No Land3. No access to sanitary

latrines4. No access to safe drinking

water (150 Mts)5. Getting only 2 meals a day

or less6. Women headed house

hold/ Presence of a widow, divorcee / abandoned lady / unwed mother

7. Having no or only one earning member

8. Belonging to socially disadvantaged groups

9. Having an illiterate adult member

1. No Land /Less than 5 cents of Land

2. No house/Dilapidated House

3. No Sanitary Latrine4. No access to safe

drinking water within 150 meters

5. Women headed house hold/ Presence of a widow, divorcee / abandoned lady / unwed mother

6. No regularly employed person in the family

7. socially disadvantaged groups(SC/ST)

8. Presence of Mentally or physically challenged person / Chronically ill member in the family

9. Families without colour TV

If four or more of the above risk factors are positive in a family, such a family is treated as a 'risk family'. If all the nine risk indices are in favour of a family that family may be in a most vulnerable situation. Similarly if the risk scores are lowering to 8,


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7, 6, 5, 4 and less than four the situation of the family gets improved. In a group of 15 or 20 people when they apply the risk indices, they themselves are enabled to rate the gravity of poverty in each family. The group makes prioritization judiciously based on the incidence of poverty. Examples on actual application of the index in two local bodies are given below:

Table-1 Table-2

Innovation in organising the poor

To restore the denied or deprived entitlements of the poor the capability of the poor has to improve first. Capability deprivation is the root cause of poverty and to make them aware of their entitlements the first and foremost step adopted by the Mission is to build an organisation structure of the poor. The Community Based Organisation (CBO) of poor set up by the Mission under the leadership of Local self Governments play vital role in eradication of absolute poverty. The organisation of poor built up by the Mission give them an opportunity to realize the causes of poverty, different variables of poverty and the magnitude of poverty. It enables them to identify their entitlements and utilize the common platform to achieve it together.

The Community Based Organisation, which encompasses all sections of poor, is organised in to a three-tier structure. The Neighbourhood Group at grassroots level consists of 15 to 40 members; each member representing a family forms the building block of the organisation. In each Neighbourhood Group from among its members, five Volunteers are elected for undertaking various functional activities. The position of a volunteer is the first stepping-stone towards leadership for a woman from poor family.


Kollam Corporation

Risk Scores

No. of Familie

sPercent

age

4 7367 47.865 4718 30.656 2289 14.877 748 4.868 220 1.439 51 0.33

Total 15393 100.00

Venganur Gramapanchayat

Risk Score

No. of Familie

sPercenta

ge

<4 796 18.504 886 20.605 1131 26.296 779 18.117 480 11.168 177 4.119 53 1.23

Total 4302 100.00

Kudumbashree

1. Community Health Volunteer - She look after the various health related aspects of the group members including children, women and the aged. Convergence of various programmes undertaken by Health and Social Welfare Departments are also carried out under the leadership of the Community Health Volunteer. In each Neighbourhood, the Mission has plans to build a unique health care system for which the health volunteer will have a pivotal role. The new system has already been piloted in select panchayats and it proved to be a success.

2. Income generation activities volunteer - The collection, consolidation and maintenance of books of accounts and registers in connection with thrift mobilisation is looked after by this volunteer. The IGA volunteer infact acts as local Micro Enterprise Consultant (MEC). She persuades and motivate the members of NHGs to take up micro enterprises, livelihood activities using the thrift loan and the linkage banking loans. At present, each Neighbourhood Group has minimum one micro enterprise. The Mission imparts necessary training to these volunteers in enterprise development, accounting etc.

3. Infrastructure Volunteer - Infrastructural backwardness of the group is tackled with the help of various ongoing governmental programmes under the leadership of this volunteer. It is proposed to take micro contracting as an income generating activity by the group after sharpening their functional skills through a series of training programmes. She will guide and promote the micro plan preparation of the NHG and liaison with the local bodies and acts as a catalyst for local development.

4. Secretary - The Secretary records the proceedings of the meeting and necessary follow up including motivation and team building is the responsibility of the Secretary.

5. President - She will preside over the weekly meetings and will impart necessary leadership and guidelines to the group members.

Area Development Society (ADS)

The second tier is Area Development Society, which is formed at ward level by federating 8-10 NHGs. The activities and the decision in the ADS is decided by the representatives of the poor elected from various federating NHGs. Area Development Society function through three distinct bodies viz.,


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1). General Body - consists of all Presidents and Secretaries of federated NHGs along with representatives of Resource Persons selected from that area.

2). Governing Body - constituted by electing a President, Secretary and five member Committee from among the General Body.

3). Monitoring and Advisory Committee - To streamline their activity with the activities of Local Self Governments, a ward level monitoring and advisory committee is formed under the chairmanship of ward member of the Local Body. The salient feature of this arrangement is the fixation of priorities by the poor; in tune with the policy framework of Local Self Governments.

Community Development Society (CDS)

At the Panchayat level a Community Development Society (CDS), a registered body under the Charitable Societies Act is formed by federating various ADSs. The CDS has three distinct bodies viz.,a. General Body - It consist of all ADS Chairpersons and ADS

Governing Body members along with representatives of Resource Persons, Officers of the Local Body who are involved in implementing various Poverty Alleviation and Women Empowerment Programmes.

b. Governing Body - The Governing Body consists of President, Member Secretary and five selected Committee Members. The President will be elected whereas the Member Secretary is the Project Officer of UPA Programmes. Other Government Officials and representatives of Resources Persons will be nominated to the Governing Body.

c. Monitoring & Advisory Committee - Municipal Chairperson/President of the Panchayat will be the Chairman of the Monitoring & Advisory Committee which is convened by Municipal Secretary/Panchayat Secretary as Convener. In urban areas the Urban Poverty Alleviation (UPA) Project Officer will be the Joint Convener.The advantage of this system is that it is managed wholly by

the representatives of the poor and have the leverage of a non governmental organisation which helps in channeling additional resources from various sources both internal and external. The CDS at local body level facilitate both autonomy and effective linkage with Local Self Governments.

The aspirations of the poor along with their genuine demands voiced out in the NHG meetings form the "micro-plans", and will be


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scrutinized and prioritised to form a mini-plan at the level of ADS. After consolidating the mini-plans by judicious prioritisation process at the level of CDS, the "CDS Plan" is formed which is also the "anti-poverty sub-plan" of the Local Self Government. Preparation of micro, mini and CDS plans facilitate the poor to participate in planning process as a major stakeholder. The local body monitors the implementation of the plan and thereby proper linkage, coupled with autonomy is ensured in the CDS system.

Other than participating in the planning process, the work done for eradication of poverty is worth mentioning. Poverty is caused mainly due to the result of unequal access of distribution of wealth and resources. The resources meant for the poor through various antipoverty programmes have not been reaching the deserving families due to weaknesses in the transfer process. The poor were destined to receive the benefit only as doles of charity. The poor are incapacitated and are vulnerable to all calamities including environmental degradation. They were even denied of their basic human rights. This denial or rather deprivation is checked in a big way through the implementation of Kudumbashree. In a nutshell, in Kerala Kudumbashree is perceived and accepted by all Local Self Governments as a further step to decentralisation process.Status of CBOs in Kudumbashree

Sl No

Name of District

No. of NHGs Formed

No. of ADSs

Formed

No. of CDSs

Formed1 Trivandrum 15755 1174 832 Kollam 11830 1064 72

3 Pathanamthitta 5838 649 57

4 Alappuzha 11076 979 785 Kottayam 8952 971 786 Idukki 8485 611 527 Ernakulam 12216 1237 988 Thrissur 14217 1278 999 Palakkad 17452 1251 9410 Malappuram 10159 1544 10511 Kozhikkode 13157 1159 8012 Wayanad 7807 362 2613 Kannur 9305 1097 8714 Kasargode 5157 548 41 Total 151406 13924 1050


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Scaling up and coverage of Kudumbashree

The State Poverty Eradication Mission, launched its activities in urban areas during April 1999. The scaling up process towards village panchayats was undertaken in three different phases. During 2000 June, the activities were expanded to 261 village panchayats, during 2001 September to 339 and 291 village panchayats during 2002 March. 100 village panchayats in Malappuram district, where CDS system was prevalent as part of Community Based Nutrition Programme was merged with Kudumbashree during 2000 June. The gradual growth of CBOs and thrift mobilised by the members are shown in the graph given below.


Kudumbashree

Fighting poverty at grass root level

Kudumbashree the overarching approach for poverty reduction has visualized mobilisation of poor families under the network of Community Based Organisation. The CBOs of poor in Kudumbashree is a three-fold organization, which encompass 3.1 million families networked in to 1.51 lakh Neighbourhood Groups, 13924 Area Development Societies and 1050 Community Development Societies. The women from poor families regularly attend the meetings of the NHGs, discuss their problems, mobilize thrift, administer need based lending, maintains accounts, venture in to small micro enterprises, initiate action against social evils. Through the active involvement in this process, the women from poor families are facilitated to learn new lessons to tackle the multiple dimensions of poverty. This learning process leads them to empowerment.

'To reach out to families through women and to reach out community through the family' is the working slogan of the Mission. When Kudumbashree reaches the family through its members, there we feel the presence of children, aged, adolescent girls, youth, etc with specific problems of the category. Besides, the multiple deprivations faced by the family in respect of the basic minimum needs, the problems faced by each individual in the family increases its vulnerability. This situation has prompted the Mission to chalk out a set of programmes to address the varying need of the members of the family. Most of the programmes of the Mission are not preconceived, discussed and deliberated at length or the out come of brainstorming sessions. It emerged or sprouted from the bare necessities of the poor but nurtured properly for optimal output and as such it becomes the specific areas where the Mission focus rather than a set of programmes.

The focus areas of Mission are listed below:

1. The Human Resource Development:

The different tiers of the Community Based Organisations of poor are being led by its leaders numbering to 7.5 lakh women from poor families. Capacity building of these leaders is of paramount importance. They are being trained regularly, motivated, and positioned in the community to meet the challenges. Every two-year approximately 50% of the leaders are changing since it is mandatory that no one should hold the same position for more than two terms. The training module for the leaders of the CBOs in three phases contain topics on Self Esteem, Community Development – New approach, Urban/ Rural Community Development – Historical Background, Urban/ Rural anti poverty programmes in our country- Basic principles & Objectives, Details


Kudumbashree

of SJSRY/ SGSY/ SGRY/NSDP/VAMBY etc – Aims, Objective and various components,Women Empowerment – New Developmental approach, Identification of poor- New Indicators, Structure of CBOs, CDS functionaries – Roles and responsibilities, Thrift & Credit Operation, Thrift & Credit Accounting, Agenda of Meeting and Preparation of minutes, Importance of Participatory Approach, Training for Social Work, Training Methodology, Social Work, Planning from the grass root.

The phase II includes topics on Leadership & Team Work, Gender issues in Development Process, Child Rights, Plan Monitoring and Evaluation, Communication, State Action Plan, Conflict Management, Decision Making.

The phase III is exclusively on Micro enterprises which contains topics on Entrepreneurship Development, Developing Enterprises, Identification of Projects for Successful Entrepreneur, Personal Management, Production Management, Inventory Management, Finance Management, Marketing strategies for Micro enterprises, Communications and Public relation, Plan Assistance of Local Self Government. The massive training programmes are organised in cascading type for which the master trainers are trained at first.

2. Community Health:

The achievements of health sector of the State are laudable and many health indicators are comparable with that of developed countries. The high life expectancy (74 yrs for male and 77 Female) low infant mortality rate (<13 for 1000 births), maternal mortality rate (0.08 for 1000 births), improved sex ratio (1000:1059) etc are examples of this achievement. Despite these laudable achievements, on a critical review it is observed that the benefits of the developments in the health sector are not percolating to the poor to the desired extent. The waterborne and poverty related diseases such as diarrhea, leptospirosis, dengue fever, jaundice, typhoid, hoping cough, TB etc are prevalent among the poor. The life style diseases such as blood pressure and diabetics are also reported in an astonishing rate of 22% among poor. The poor health situation not only keeps them in poverty but also increases the burden on life and leads them to destitution. Therefore, under the leadership of Community Health Volunteer of NHG a health care system is developed to address the health needs of the poor. A detailed case study attached.

3. Education:

Education is yet another important area Kudumbashree focus. In the education and literacy sectors also the State has achieved commendable results. But it remains as a fact that nearly 18 % of the children who enroll in the primary classes are not reaching the


Kudumbashree

tenth standard. Normally, droping out from schools is a rare phenomena in Kerala society, but whatever drop out are there, they are from BPL families. Most of the children leave the school on the grounds related to poverty. The educational standards of poor are also not to the desired level. Poverty denies opportunity for education both general and higher education. The socio economic analysis of students who failed on the examination shows that majority of them failed are from BPL families. In the case of Therefore, Kudumbashree has facilitated the CBOs to set up remedial education centers, organize vacation classes for the high school children and ensure participation of the parents in PTA/Mother PTA meetings. Special programme to improve employability of youth and 'Finishing schools' are also set up.

4. Balasabha - Children's Neighbourhood

Balasabhas are grass root level groups of the children of poor families. They can be viewed as side shoots of Neighbourhood Groups formed under Kudumbashree mission. The mission organises the children of the poor families of the State into Balasabhas as a part of it’s holistic approach to wipe out poverty. Catch them young and nip poverty in the buds is the guiding slogan behind the Balasabha movement initiated by the Mission. All that are required to ensure the overall development of the children of the BPL families are matters of great concern and keen interest to Kudumbashree. Capacity building, cultivation of creative potentials, ensuring of opportunities to express, learn and develop, offering opportunity to identify and nurture innate talents – Balasabhas leave no stone unturned to boost the healthy growth and development of children. Balasabhas provide an ideal atmosphere for informal learning. They also supplement services required for the proper development of children. Thousands and thousands of Balasabhas have already come up under Kudumbashree. Each Balasabha provides a new rhythm and harmony to children and enlightens their lives. The ultimate aim is to emancipate the young generation of the poor families from the vicious circle of poverty.

5. Basic Minimum Need

The CBOs of poor also address the basic Minimum Needs of the member families. The infrastructure volunteer of the NHG takes the lead in preparing micro plan at NHG level by assessing the needs of the poor. The micro plans are prepared with the active participation of the members of the NHGs. The Micro plans are integrated as mini plans at ADS level and the mini plans are integrated as CDS plan at Municipal level. The CDS plans becomes the anti-poverty Sub-plan of the local body for which about one third of the development resources of the local body are earmarked.


Kudumbashree

6. Micro Finance & Linkage Banking

1. Thrift & Credit operation

Kudumbashree promotes Thrift mobilization by setting up Thrift & Credit Societies at NHG level to facilitate the poor to save and to provide them cost effective and easy credit. Thrift and credit Societies facilitate easy and timely credit to the un-reached. A member can avail loan up to a maximum of four times of his savings. The amount of loan and the priority of disbursement are decided by the NHG. The repayment is collected weekly during the routine NHG meetings. The income towards interest from thrift is generally used for re-loaning. The most important aspect of the thrift and credit societies is the prompt repayment of loans. Thrift and credit societies organised by the Kudumbashree are fastly growing as Informal Banks of the poor women at their doorsteps. Most of the thrift societies are now capable of providing assistance even to income generating activities.

2. Bank Linkage Programme

Efficiency and effectiveness of NHGs are to be verified on the basis of some objectively verifiable and easily identifiable parameters. NABARD has developed a 15-point index for rating NHGs on the basis of which they will be allowed to link with various banks under the Linkage Banking Scheme. Once the groups are linked, they will be eligible to receive finance in the ratio ranging from 1:1 to 1:9. The assistance so received can be utilised by the groups for internal lending and taking up of Micro Enterprises. Under the leadership of Kudumbashree District Mission Team, efforts are being taken to verify the performance of NHGs through out the State. As of date, 44325 NHGs are linked with NABARD under the linkage-banking scheme and Rs.153.689 crore is mobilized as loan from banks. This shows that our NHGs are equally competent to channel resources to the local bodies from banks.

7. Micro Housing

Micro housing is an innovative housing programme designed by Kudumbashree to cater the housing need of the poor families in Kerala. This is a lone alone housing scheme. Kudumbashree implementing this programme with the active support of Nationalized, Scheduled Commercial and Private Sector banks in Kerala. 10 banks such as SBI, SBT, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, Dhanalekshmi Bank, Syndicate Bank , ICICI bank & Union bank are now implementing this programme. In this programme, the bank provides loan up to


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Rs 50000/- @ 7.25 % interest (fixed) and the repayment period is for ten years.

8. Lease Land Farming

Inspite of the fact that Kerala is a thickly populated state and there is shortage for land, large areas of cultivable land is kept idle in the State due to the waning interest in agriculture. On the other hand, thousands and thousands of poor families who are ready to do anything for a livelihood do not have land to venture into agriculture sector. When paddy cultivation became a non-lucrative affair, farmers of the state deserted paddy fields. Kudumbashree found this as an opportunity. Neighbourhood Groups of the mission were given encouragement to start paddy cultivation. Many groups have identified the immense potential of lease land farming. Lease land farming is beneficial both to the landless poor women of Kudumbashree and the landowners who are not interested in paddy cultivation. During the current year lease land, farming was done in 16544.42 hectares. 250598 families, hailing from 22649 NHGs got benefited.

9. Ashraya - Destitute Identification Rehabilitation and Monitoring Prioject

While implementing the poverty alleviation programmes it has been observed that the programmes implemented by the Government and other agencies never reach to the rock bottom poor who live in utter distress and despair who are very small in number- not more than 2% of the total population. Even if anything reach to them that tantamount to doles of charity and that too never helped them to cross the borders of poverty. They are destitutes. They are the poorest of the poor. They are outliers of the development scenario in the negative extreme. They live at the margins of the economy, society and polity. They do not have a “voice” or the power of “choice”.

The destitute families were identified using transparent risk indices framed by the Mission and a participatory need assessment was made to assess the needs of each family. During 2002-03, 101 Village panchayats have identified 8239 families and in 2003-04, 78 Village Panchayats have identified 6551 families for rehabilitation. The total project cost of 179 village panchayats works out to Rs 74.18 crores. During the year 2004-05, another 117 Grama panchayats have taken up the project with an outlay of Rs 48.05 crores.

10. Micro Enterprises

Kudumbashree views Micro Enterprise Development as an opportunity for providing gainful employment to the people below poverty line and thereby improving their income and living standard. In the experience of Kudumbashree micro enterprise


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development is an emerging process which will start with low capital low risk and low profit at the initial stage which will gain momentum and later switch on to low to medium capital and then to low to medium risk. In an advanced stage, it may even reach medium capital medium risk and medium profit with appropriate technology, emerging technology or even with low technology.

Capital Employed Risk Involved Profit

GenerationTechnology

UsedLow Low Low Low

Low-Medium Low Low + LowLow-Medium Low-Medium Low-Medium Low

Medium Medium MediumLow,

Appropriate Emerging

In setting up of Micro enterprises for the poor and enabling to take up livelihood activities Kudumbashree has developed its own methodology. So far 27477 women from urban area and 2.07 lakh women from rural areas were given the sustainable self-employment opportunities with reasonable income. The activities taken up include those of sun rise sector such as, IT, Agri business, Tourism related activities, Food Processing, Dairy Products, Solar Cookers, Vidayasree (IT @ School), Integrated Coconut Processing (Kerashree), Tissue Culture, Yathrashree (Chain Hotels), Solar dried vegetables and fruits, Hotels and restaurants, Surgical Kit and Sanitary Napkin, Ayurvedic tooth powder and allied products, Agri-horti-herbal nurseries, exclusive vanila nurseries, Solid waste management units, bio fertilizer manufacturing units, multi purpose job clubs, courier service and several other activities in service, business and industry sectors run by women from poor families..


Following stories reveal how effective Kudumbashree in its fight against poverty

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We acted while they debated on poverty

Public debate on poverty generated more heat than light in India. And Kerala was no exception. The eradication of poverty drew the attention of all political masters.

The academic debates and political slogans

Kudumbashree addressed multiple manifestations of poverty through a multi-pronged strategy. In Kerala there are 22 government departments implementing 45 self-employment programmes through its various agencies. These programmes failed to achieve the target areas.

These developmental programmes were not converged and implemented unilaterally. Kudumbashree initiated a common platform to anti-poverty programmes in the state and mobilized the poor and generated demands. This approach helped to implement anti-poverty programmes more effectively. This process has empowered the poor and social accounting practices were initiated. To facilitate the community Based Organisations of poor and local self-governments to achieve the desired goals, a series of programmes were developed.

Kuttiyamma, no more scared

Kuttiyamma maintains a garden in front of her house. Red Roses and lilies bloom there. Her life has changed since she shifted to her newly constructed home in Ayyappan Koil Panchayath in Idukki district of Kerala -her status too. She is no more a destitute who lives on charity.

58 year-old widow and her daughter were living in a hut on the encroached revenue land for long. But Ashraya, a novel project initiated by Kudumbashree and supported by the Panchayath provided her with a two-bed room concrete house and five cents of land.

“I feel happy. Now I too have a decent house to live”, says Kuttiyamma with a beaming smile. Kuttiyamma started dreaming of new life. Now she is confident enough to dream of tomorrow.

Her life was full of tears. She was born as poor and lived her whole life in miseries. She was married when she was 24. Her


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husband Jose died of Tuberculosis. She did odd jobs to feed her two daughters.

“When I look back, I’m still scared. I don’t know how I managed my life”, replies Kuttiyamma when asked about her past. Her wrinkled face tells her struggle and helplessness.

When the pilot project of Ashraya was implemented in Ayyappankoil panchayath, the Committee unanimously identified Kuttiyamm’s family as the poorest of the poor in the panchayath. The Panchayath Committee prepared a micro plan to rehabilitate Kutiyamma and her daughter. The micro-plan envisaged land, house and means of livelihood for her family.

The panchayath purchased 5 cents of land and constructed a beautiful house for her.

“I know Kuttiyamma for a long time. I wanted to help her but there was no provision in our budget to provide her financial assistance. Ashraya gave us an opportunity to help the poorest of the poor in our society”, comments Vijayamma Joseph, the president of Ayyappankoil Panchayath.

“We have done a survey to identify the destitute families in our panchayath through Community development societies and shortlisted the beneficiaries. Kuttiyamma’s case was the worst of all. Her life is an open book and everybody knows about her miseries. Then we made a micro-plan to rehabilitate her family”, narrates the Panchayath President about the Ashraya project that gifted Kuttiyamma with new existence.

“Local people also contributed for the construction of the house. Some of her neighbours sponsored kitchen utensils and furniture. Some of her well-wishers came forward to do voluntary works to minimize construction costs”, reveals Vijayamma who took personal interest to complete the construction in time.

Large number of villagers came forward to help Kuttiyamma and her family. The villagers have shown great seal of social commitment to help the family in the rehabilitation process. When her neighbours found that she has no water connection, they dig a well for her. Now the Panchayath is trying to provide her family a means of livelihood. So she can live comfortably.

When the house was completed, the whole village joined her family to celebrate the glorious moments. They gifted her with all the things that helped to start her life fresh.

Today her small drawing room is decorated with the pictures of

Mother Theresa and Virgin Mary whom she worship and pray. “I prayed to God all the time in my life. Now God has given me


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everything that I have prayed. I’m grateful to all”, says Kuttiyamma whose life has pitched in pleasant turns.

“We have solved most of her problems. But few more things have to be sorted out. Her eldest daughter who was married, has returned home as her in-laws were demanding more money. Now she has find a way to pay the money”, reveals Reena Jacob, President Community Development Society. Kuttiyamma is now confidant that she will be able to pay the money within two months. Now she has number wellwishers in the village who are ready to lend a helping hand. And she is no more a destitute and her life has become more colourful.

Making a difference - Aishwarya Enterprises, Kattappana

Archana never dreamt that her life is going to change when she joined Kudumbashree Neighbourhood Group in Kattappana, a township in Iduukki district of Kerala. She has joined the group out of compulsion from her friends and neighbours. Today Archana and her friends in Aisharya unit are managing St. John’s Hospital canteen successfully. These poor women are showing a way to the rest of the world how poverty can be eradicated through successful micro-ventures.

Forty-one year old Archana has a tale to tell. An innocent divorcee with two daughters of the age of twenty and seventeen, she was struggling to make a living. She cursed her life when she found there is no hope and prayed to all Gods to save her from misery.

Archana and her friends were looking for a right opportunity to start a micro-enterprise in their area. They discussed various possibilities and tried to learn about each venture. They were all worried about the risks involved availing bank loans subsequent loss. They were confronted with more stumbling blocks as they debated over the risk factors more critically. It was Usaha, one of the group members who came up with idea of running a hotel in their township. She has managed teashop for a year and closed it after incurring loss.

It was beginning of seeing a ray of hope. Then they started looking for an ideal spot to open their hotel. But the rent was high and they were not sure about the returns. They almost abandoned the idea of running hotel. But luck was in their favour.

Then they saw advertisement in local newspapers inviting tenders for running a canteen in St. John’s Hospital, Kattappana. They went and met the hospital authorities and applied for it.

“We never thought that we would win the open tender. Most of our group members never had the expertise of running a hotel. But we approached the Director of the hospital and explained our situation. We assured him that we would do our best and provide


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good food at a reasonable price. He was convinced about our intentions” narrates Jolly, Secretary of the group who are running the canteen in profit for the last seven months.

They were given premises on lease for Rs. 1000 per day and have to pay Rs. 7000 as electricity charges. Aisharya catering unit has availed bank loan for Rs. 200,000.

“We feel happy today as our venture is running in profit and we have started repaying our loan amount” says Archana who dreams of diversifying their business venture.

“We have realized that we can do things in better way and we are inferior to none. This awareness has filled new meaning in our lives. Now our husbands listen to us and consult us before taking a decision”, says Usha, a team member.

She is looking at life with new enthusiasm and vigour. She has taken loan of Rs. 50,000 to build her house and she has saved Rs. 10,000 in her account and repaid Rs. 31,000 of her loan amount. She earns Rs. 2400 while working in the canteen as her wages. More than that now she can maintains her family budget within her resources. Like her friends, she too dreams of a better tomorrow where her daughter and son do not have to struggle like her.“When I told my husband that our group is going to run the hospital canteen, he didn’t like the idea. He discouraged me and told me that our experiment would fail. Today he appreciates our efforts and support us”, says Usha who believes that poor women can change their destiny if they have the determination and the will.

Marykutty Joseph, another group member has a different story to tell. She had to borrow Rs. 10 to open her thrift account two years back. Her friend s motivated her to save the thrift amount. Now she is earning Rs 2500 per month and helping her husband to run the family smoothly.

“We have learnt how to work together and earn together. If we need money, we can take loan from our thrift fund. Our savings and our enterprises have given us new status. People around us are treating us with respect and regard”, replies Marykutty Joseph who is busy with serving tea in the canteen.

These poor women who is running a micro-enterprise and earning good sum of money for their livelihood are helping the poor patients who seek their help. They provide free food to 10 to 12 poor patients who are admitted in the hospital. They donate Rs. 300 to Akasha Paravakal, a destitute home in Kattappana and Rs 50 to an orphanage. They also give money for buying medicines for the poor people as a social commitment. These semi-literate women who had changed their destiny with immense fighting spirit and hard work, are showing way to the rest of the world.


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“We are helping them because we have experienced similar situations in our lives. We are happy to share our profit with the less privileged and poor. Because we believe it’s our duty to help them”, says Archana whose initiative and leadership qualities have helped the group to scale success with rare social commitment.

Information Technology brightens their lives....

Kerala IT wiz-kids made a name and money in Silicon Valley years back. Many followed their path and IT became a short cut to instant career success in India. Money, glamour and technology fascinated millions of Indian youth to IT world. But not many poor was provided with this global opportunity in Kerala, the southern Indian state. They were not techno savvy and IT was beyond their reach.

But Kudumshree changed these misconceptions about IT and used it as an effective tool to eradicate poverty in Kerala. New Info IT solutions, Kattappana is one of such models where eight women entrepreneurs from Below Poverty Line families making their venture a grand success.

New Info IT established in Kattappana, an urban village in Idukki district of Kerala has become an icon of women empowerment in the high ranges. They have initiated their IT intervention with a loan amount of Rs. 2,50,000 and offering various courses in IT at an affordable fee. They also undertake various job works for the government department.

“When we started this venture, many predicted that we would end in loss. But we were determined to make it a success. In fact, their discouragement helped us to make it a success”, says Shelgy Abraham, President of the unit.

She has come a long way from her despair. Seven of her promoters are graduates and post graduate diploma holders in computer application.

“Our knowledge level has increased as Kudumbashree provides good training for running the micro-enterprises. We have learnt a lot by running our enterprise for the last two years. If everything goes normal phase, soon we all cross the BPL index ”, she admits. A dream Kudumbashree cherished for long.

The success story of New Info Unit in Kattappana tells dramatic changes taking place in the villages and townships in Kerala. The poor women who were ignored in their families have joined together to make each enterprise a big success and earning good amount money and changing the social perception about the gender equality.


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They are giving training in various IT related courses. “We started with basic courses in IT and lots of poor students benefited out of it. Earlier IT courses were very expensive and poor students were not able to afford their fees. We changed the scenario and other institutes were forced to reduce their fees when we started training programmes at reasonable fees”, says Shelgy. Now their competitors have slashed their fees to outsmart them in the business. But they have decided not to yield their pressures.

“Our profit is not limited to monetary terms or balance sheet of our unit. Today people take us seriously. Even our family members are looking at us with great respect. We are no more the silly girls who can be taken lightly. We support our families when they need financial assistance”, narrates Shelgy who experiences a sea of changes after she become successful entrepreneur.

Today each member is getting Rs. 2500 as their remuneration and they have repaid 50% of their loan amount. Now the group is planning to buy a space in the town and shift their unit to new place. They also wanted to upgrade their skills in programming to diversify their service area and grab opportunities.

“We are planning to develop software packages for shops and hospitals. We are sending two of our colleagues to specialize in software development. Then only we can better our profit margins and compete with others”, reveals Shelgy about her future plans. The group is diversifying into other areas of Information Technology to withstand market competition.

“Now we can dream a lot and plan for tomorrow. We have money, credibility and confidence. We have learnt hard lessons through our experience. Now we want to help others who wants to better their life”, says the team leader with a warm smile. They feel proud about what they do. It’s not just money alone that motivates them to work hard. The enterprise gave them new identity and opportunity.

Rabbits saving families from mass suicide in Idukki

Semi-literate poor women of Neelivayal love their rabbits more than their children. It’s the only hope they have during the time of economic depression and drought. The cute rabbits in their little cages are their only means of livelihood making their lives easy.

Neelivayal, a sleepy village in Thankamani Panchayath in Iddukki district of Kerala found a way out to beat economic depression and price fall of cash crops. The poor farmers of are the victims of drought and floods that visit them annually. Globalization also resulted fall of their cash crops. But Kudumbashree intervened through its Community Development Society and mobilized them to


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develop the cluster of Rabbit Rearing units in the Thankamani Panchayath.

The poverty Eradication Mission of Kerala trained the poor women of Neelivayal to initiate rabbit rearing as a micro-enterprise in the Panchayath. Today the poor women of Neelivayal are happy as their initiative helped them to have an easy life during recession.

They changed the course of their destiny through their unity and determination when many of their villagers committed suicides, as they could not bear the brunt of recession. The success stories of these women become glorious as the Idukki district constitute highest number of suicides among the agrarian families.

“I never believed that rabbits could save our family from poverty. But today each member in our group is earning Rs. 3,000 per month from rabbit rearing”, says Elsy Joseph who is the president of Chaithannya Rabbit Rearing Unit in Neelivayal. The 15 member group started this venture three years back, has more than 1,000 rabbits in different stages.

“Rabbit rearing is ideal for us. We have started this enterprise with a loan amount of Rs. 2,00,000. One of our members had undergone training for Rabbit rearing also helped us initially. She taught us how to rear rabbits. In fact this was the only consolation we had when recession followed by drought and flood hit our village”, comments Elsy Joseph.

According to her, rabbit rearing is very productive, reproducing rapidly and producing good quality meat and can be maintained on kitchen waste, non-toxic weed, locally available leaves, agricultural by products. They are useful animal for individual farmers, and village groups. The rabbits can easily be maintained on high forage, low grain diet that is unsuited for human consumption. Moreover, as compared to other livestock, they require low level of nutrients and energy.

“It’s cost-effective and highly profitable. We have learnt the skills for raising rabbits with seven days training”, says Lissy Mathew who trained her neighbours the skills of breeding and raising rabbits in Neelivayal.

Lissy, poor housewife turned to rabbit rearing as a backyard venture to earn some money and help her family. It was difficult for her to market the meat and the venture collapsed when her rabbits died of virus attack. When Kudumbashree was formed in her village, she joined the Neighbourhood Help Group and Bank linkage helped her to restart her old venture.

“I was convinced from my experience that rabbit rearing is a profitable venture. But when I told my friends about this they were


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doubtful. Many of them felt that we were not able to market the meat at a good price as the villagers are not money rich to consume rabbit meat and we have no knowledge about marketing it outside”, narrates Lissy the saga of their success.

Rabbit meat is now consumed in small quantities in India. The nutritive value of rabbit meat is very high as compared to other meat. Rabbit meat is easily digestible, the protein content is higher than that of many kinds of meat and the protein value of domestic rabbit rank higher than any other meat used for human consumption besides rich in vitamin B and low in fat and cholesterol contents. Under Indian conditions, broiler production has touched 2.2 kg live weight per animal in the age group of 12 weeks.

“Like all other micro-entrepreneurs, our major concern was marketing. But Kudumbashree district Mission Coordinator assured us marketing slot if we rear rabbits in large number. He told us if we rear rabbit in small numbers, the marketing will be difficult and we would not get good price. We decided to follow his advice”, says Lissy who learnt from her experience that rabbit rearing could be more profitable if done in clusters in the village.

“If the production is more in numbers, we get better price and regular order. It will help us to avail the service of the veterinary doctors and reduce the cost of production”, says Lissy.

Breeding management and maintenance of breeding stock play an important role in rabbit farming. The ratio of male and female for breeding is 1:5. Breeding is quite easy but should be used only after fully grown-normally around 8 months old. Choose only healthy, large rabbits which have come from large litters for breeding.

Mating is done within buck’s cage and if females are ready, mating should take place immediately and may last for 30 seconds to a few minutes. After successful service, the buck usually falls to his side and the doe is removed to her cage. If the doe refuses to mate, it can be presented to another buck very next day. Abdominal palpation 10-14 days after mating is a reliable method of diagnosis of pregnant does. Three weeks later, move the pregnant females into a separate cage with a nest box containing bedding material. She will give birth a month after mating. The nest should be checked as soon as after kindling and dead litter if any, are removed. Litter size generally range from 7-8 for medium/heavy breeds. Weaning of young one is usually done at 6-8 weeks of age.

Lissy has mastered the techniques of breeding and helping her group members with her skills. Her experience and training help


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her to identify the common diseases that are fatal in rabbit rearing. Her story is a real example of how a micro-enterprise empower a poor semi-literate woman economically and with technical know-how. She feels confidant as she is donning in the role of a trainer in rabbit rearing.

“Rabbit rearing not only helped us economically but also reshaped our lives. Now we don’t sit ideal or involve in silly talks. Our family members also involve in our venture and motivating us to do better. More than everything, now our villagers are coming to us and seeking our advice on rabbit rearing. These rabbits have brightened our lives”, says Elsy Jacob.

Rabbit rearing helped them to increase their thrift amount and support their families for better education and medical care. Some of the group members have taken loan for the construction of their house. They are planning to increase the production to generate more money to repay their loan amount. And rabbits make their lives more comfortable and dignified.

Shakthi Hollow-Bricks Unit Iddinjangode, Kairadi , Palakkad

Women of iron will vs Muscle power

Women of Iddinjangode, a hilly village in Palakkad district in Kerala, fear none, not even the organized trade unions. They have proved beyond doubt that none has the right to deny their livelihood through a legal battle in High Court of Kerala.

They filed a petition in the High Court and won the case when the trade Unions in their village obstructed loading and unloading of Hollow bricks that they manufactured in their premises. Shakthi Hollow Bricks Unit in Iddinjangode showed their mettle when they fought the case against the trade unions. Now they are confidant as the legal battle helped them to unite together and fight together. Their story reveals that women can match men and outsmart them when they fight each other.

“We ventured into cement hollow bricks manufacturing just to make a living. We took a loan of Rs. 1,00,000 to start Cement Hollow bricks unit as there is a great demand for bricks in our area. But when we manufactured the hollow bricks, trade unions demanded more money for loading the bricks in the lorries. We struck a deal with them paying 40 paisa per brick initially. After two months they demanded a hefty raise and insisted that we should pay Rs. 1.50 per piece that was not acceptable to us. If we pay such hefty amount for just loading the bricks in lorries, our unit would have closed down. We tried to reason with members of all trade union who are our neighbours. But they were very adamant


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and told us to close down the unit or pay their hefty loading charges”, says Bindu Aliyar, the president of Shakthi Hollow Bricks unit, Idinjangode. Bindu along with six others of her Neighbourhood Group started this venture in 2003 after attending one week training in manufacturing hollow bricks provided by Kudumbashree.

“We have spent more than Rs.1,25,000 to purchase machinery and electricity connection. We have pledged our gold ornaments and borrowed money from our friend to start the enterprise. How can we close down our unit?”, Bindu reveals her struggle and dilemma.

They approached the political leaders and Panchayath authorities and convinced them about their pathetic conditions. But none was ready to intervene in the matter as the trade unions were politically organized. So Bindu and her friends filed a police complaint in Nenmara police station seeking police protection for manufacturing and loading the hollow bricks in their unit. The reconciliation talks failed and all trade unions despite their political difference united together to close down their unit. And the poor women were out of business as trade unions threatened them with dire consequence.

“We cried as we nobody to help us. The police official told us if we get a favourable court order, he could give us protection. Finally we decided to fight our case”, narrates Bindu her ordeal of becoming a successful entrepreneur. The poor women of Idinjangode went all the way to Ernakulam, 100 Kilometers away from their native village to file their case. They were for the first time visiting the city alone. They have only vague idea of filing a case in the High Court and never in their life they had gone to court or seek the help of an advocate.

“We went to the police station for the first time in our lives to file a complaint. It was the first we went to the court”, says Sally Saji, a group member.

They filed the petition through Advocate Balasubramanyam in the High court and the court issued an order in favour of them. And police implemented the court order very next day and today they are not paying loading charges to trade unions. And their unit is running in profit.

“Our bitter experience taught us a good lesson. Never dishearten with the resistance. Today we can face any challenges”, says Bindu confidently. Their legal battle has earned them name and fame in their village.


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“When we had problems, we never sought the help of our husbands or relatives to solve the problems. We wanted to prove that we would not yield to pressure tactics or threats. They (trade unions) thought that we were poor women and would not challenge them in the court. The legal battle boosted our morale and confidence. Now nobody dares to challenge us”, says Priya Vijayan, a group member motivated the group to fight back.

“If we had succumbed to the pressures and yielded to their demands, we would have never become successful as entrepreneurs”, remarks Priya.


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Micro Financing and Linkage Banking

Deprivation is a curse that leads the poor people to the acute misery of poverty, and it all starts when money plays a major role in increasing the magnitude of their misery.

Poor people usually are of that socially and financially insecure class, who are daily laborers or depend on other meager sources of money for their survival. In this era of increasing prices, people try to save their earnings to be financially secure. But even here the poor are cheated by their fate, they are hardly able to meet their needs with the small amount they earn, how can they think of savings. And thus day-by-day they are pushed deeper and deeper into the vicious grip of poverty.

The mission thus felt the need to promote the saving habits in the poor families, and thus evolved the concept of micro financing. The basic concept of micro financing is that, to promote small savings from the poor families in the form if thrift in their NHGs; and help them raise bulk loans from that small savings. The first step to this may be said as micro credit.

Clara from Needakara gramapanchayat, a fish vendor says “I used to take Rs. 1000 as loan daily for buying fish. The moneylender used to give me only Rs. 900, which after my day sales I had to return as Rs. 1000. I had no other choice as who else would lend money to poor people like us. But now I can take loan from my NHG Sagara that to at as low rate of interest as Rs. 10 per month on 1000. It is now that I realise how much money I have lost to the moneylender. As the rate of interest paid by me then was Rs. 100/day for Rs. 1000 (whereas now Rs. 10/month). It is not only the easiness in taking loans, but also that its me and my neighbours in our NHG who manage our money and decide whom to give loans”.

Micro Finance For Poverty Reduction

Micro finance is being used by Kudumbashree as a major tool for poverty eradication. Not only finance at their door step; they themselves manage it. Put together they have mobilised Rs. 432.34 crores and lent Rs. 874.78 crores; They are the owners, managers and officers of their bank!. The mission follows a simple model of micro finance to facilitate easier availability and better utilisation of loans for the poor people.


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Kudumbashree model of Micro Finance Start with Thrift Sanction of credit Repayment and monitoring of credit Grading of NHGs- system regularisation & perfection Linking with banks Development of Micro Enterprise by availing loan from NHG Training Market development Generation of income and repayment of loan to NHG Repayment of Bank loan by NHG

Micro Credit

The small credit that the poor people take with the help of their thrift is termed as micro credit.

i) Thrift & Credit

Kudumbashree promotes Thrift mobilization by setting up Thrift & Credit Societies at NHG level to facilitate the poor to save and to provide them cost effective and easy credit. Thrift and credit Societies help to provide easy and timely credit to the un-reached. A member can avail loan up to a maximum of four times of his savings. The amount of loan and the priority of disbursement are decided by the NHG. The repayment is collected weekly during the routine NHG meetings. The income towards interest from thrift is generally used for re-loaning. The most important aspect of the thrift and credit societies is the prompt repayment of loans.

Kudumbashree is the largest micro finance institution in the State that encompasses 1,51,406 Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs), 13,924 Area Development Societies (ADS) and 1,050 Community Development Societies (CDS). This federated network has a membership to 30,98,011 lakh poor families. The thrift mobilised by the NHGs amounts to Rs. 432.34 crores and this has been circulated as loan amounting to Rs. 874.78 crores. The Thrift & Credit Societies at NHG level motivates and facilitate the poor to save and provide them with cost effective and easy credit. The poor families bring in small sums according to their capability, pool them together, form a corpus and take back loans to meet their immediate needs without depending on the whims and fancies of money lenders, formal or informal. It's their money and it's their decision to invest and withdraw.


71%12%

10%7%

6%

4%

78%

12% Consumption Needs

Contingency Needs

Festivity Needs

IG ActivityIn 1998, Rs.11.15 Mn In 2004, Rs. 293.87 Mn

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The thrift operation also necessitates a formal bank account that is operated jointly by the President and Secretary. In rotation all the members of the NHGs get opportunity to attend the bank, involve in the transactions and learn the banking procedures. This gives them confidence, builds self-esteem and awareness of their rights.

A member can avail loan up to a maximum of four times of her savings. The amount of loan and the priority of disbursement are decided by the NHG. The repayment is collected weekly during the routine NHG meetings. The income towards interest from thrift is generally used for re-loaning. The most important aspect of the thrift and credit societies is the prompt repayment of loans with market rate of interest.

a) Informal Banks at the Doorsteps of the Poor

Thrift and credit societies facilitated by Kudumbashree are growing as Informal Banks at the doorsteps of the poor women. It is a bank that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days in a year. It is operated and managed by themselves, they are the owners, officers and beneficiaries. Most of the thrift societies have even become capable of providing assistance for income generating activities.

The Salient features of the Micro finance is given below


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Poor can save – “We are poor, we cannot open a bank account. We wanted to save; but them was no opportunity. Now we have thrift & credit society of our NHG; quite simple carry and flexible. We make our decision in NHG meeting. Ours is an informal bank. We put money; we get a pass book; we can withdraw money; we decide who is to be given loan; what amount; `we manage our money’ ” says Narayaniamma, Venganoor gramapanchayat, Thiruvananthapuram district.

Flexible financial service Enables to undertake Micro Enterprises Informal bank Easy to avail Facilitate timely credit Low transaction cost Poor can pay interest at market rate Weekly repayment Transparency in operation Loan disbursement – Need based Loans at the convenience of the poor No collateral security Time saving Credit at the doorstep Prompt repayment due to peer pressure Leap in self-confidence and building up of self esteem

The Present Status of Thrift & Credit Operation in Kudumbashree is given below

As on 31.12.2004

NHG ADS CDS Thrift Credit

Urban 8614 725 59 27.80 cr. 29.39 cr.

Rural 140743 13199 991 400.97 cr. 841.14 cr.

Tribal 2049 3.57 cr. 4.25 cr.Total 151406 13924 1050 432.34 874.78ii) Bank Linkage Programme

The financing pattern when promoted among the poor, it received a response to which the mission felt the need to involve various banks, so that the poor can get better loans. To facilitate the process in a better manner, a linkage programme has been evolved with the help of NABARD. Efficiency and effectiveness of NHGs are to be verified on the basis of some easy parameters. NABARD has developed a 15-point index for rating NHGs on the basis of which they will be allowed to link with various banks under the Linkage Banking Scheme. Once the groups are linked they will be eligible to receive finance in the ratio ranging from 1:1 to 1:9.


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The assistance so received can be utilized by the groups for internal lending and taking up of Micro Enterprises. Under the leadership of Kudumbashree District Mission Team, efforts are being taken to verify the performance of NHGs through out the State. About 44325 NHGs are linked with NABARD under the linkage-banking scheme and about Rs. 153.69 crore is mobilized as loan from banks (The district wise position of Linkage Banking Programme is attached). This shows that our NHGs are equally competent to channel resources to the local bodies from banks.

The 15-point index rating Criteria for the linkage-banking Programme for the evaluation of the NHGs are;

1. Composition2. Age of the group3. Weekly group meetings4. Attendance5. Minutes6. Participation in group discussion7. Savings (frequency)8. Savings and loan recovery9. Style of functioning & group decisions10. Sanction and disbursement in of loans11. Interest on loans12. Utilisation of savings on loaning 13. Recovery of loans14. Books of accounts15. Bye laws/group rules


Kudumbashree

Information Technology Winning Tool for the Poor Women

The origin of Kudumbashree IT Units

During July, 1999 Smt. Vasantha, a widow aged 35 came to Kudumbashree office in search of a part time sweeper job. She was a degree holder and also had done some computer courses. Her husband died due to cardiac arrest who was a truck driver. Vsantha has two children and struggling hard to earn their daily bread. Dire necessities forced here to request even for a part time sweeper job. But Kudumbashree had no other option at that time but to refuse her request. Already there was a sweeper, who is an abandoned lady. On further enquiry, we came to know that Thiruvananthapuram Corporation was imparting training on Computer applications to girls and boys under Peoples Plan Campaign, but there was no scheme for settling them either for wage employment or for self employment.

Around this time there was news from the Directorate of Panchayat that the Hon. High Court has initiated steps against the Department for contempt of court for non-complying the court order to issue Provident Fund credit cards to their employees for the last 8 years. There were about 10500 odd employees working in 991 grama Panchayats and 14 district offices. It is was a Herculean task to prepare all these credit cards manually. They have approached KELTRON and some other agencies for computerized preparation of the credit cards, but their estimates were quite high and the department could not meet the expenditure from the budget immediately. Up-to that time only big business houses having hundreds of computers and other facilities have tried to enter into the bulk data processing field. Moreover, there was an unholy understanding between the players of this area that prevents the entry of new comers especially the small players.

This situation has prompted Kudumbashree to think about starting computer data processing units of women belonging to poor families by harnessing different self-employment programmes of central and state Governments. The message was conveyed to the Kudumbashree district Mission and Thiruvananthapuram corporation CDS and asked them to identify qualified, women from the NHGs of their CDS those who are willing to work in a computer data processing unit. The response was tremendous and about 40 women belonging to 3 ADSs came forward for first round interview and training. After a series of discussions and capacity building trainings 10 poor women were selected for starting the first data processing unit of Kudumbashree. The unit was named as "Technoworld Digital Technologies". Smt. Shammema was the


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leader of the group and Smt. S. Rajam was the Group Secretary. Smt. Vasantha who came for the part time sweeper job was also one among the members of the group. The unit started functioning on 15th September 1999 at Thiruvananthapuram with 5 PCs, one Dot matrix printer and one 3 KVA On-line UPS. Initially, Kudumbashree has provided some space at the ground floor of the District Mission Office for starting the unit and later on they have shifted the centre to a rented building near Kumarapuram, Thiruvananthapuram. The project cost was Rs.2.90 lakhs out of which Rs.1.50 was arranged from Syndicate Bank, Fort Branch as loan under SJSRY scheme, Rs.1.25 was given as subsidy from Kudumbashree and Rs.15,000/- was came from the unit members as their share.

Meanwhile Kudumbashree has canvassed the PF credit card preparation work of Pachayat Directorate at an estimated cost of Rs.6.28 lakhs and the work was entrusted with this unit. The unit has also got good response from private, govt. and semi-government institutions for data entry, DTP, Software Development, Web Site Designing, Hosting and Maintenance, Supply of manpower to computer related jobs etc. Presently they are having 27 computers 1 High Speed Laser Printer, 1 Dot Matrix Printer, Scanner, CD Writer, Three 3 KVA UPS etc. Up-to December, 2004 they have earned Rs.78.28 lakhs through these works. The unit is functioning in 2 shifts and providing employment opportunities to another 55 poor women mostly form the Neighbourhood groups. They have completed the loan repayment during February, 2003. Now they are planning to buy a piece of land and construct a building of their own in the prime space of Thiruvananthapuram city.

Scaling up

After carefully studying the progress of the first IT Unit, Kudumbashree has decided to start more units in the Urban areas. By March 2000, 48 such units were started in 34 Municipalities. Gradually the number has increased and by December 2004 there are 78 Kudumbashree Computer Units functioning in 54 Urban Local bodies and 8 Grama Panchayats. Most of the units have 10 to 20 computers and other accessories. At present 780 women are members of Kudumbashree IT Units. They are also providing employment to another 642 women on contract. 44 units have completed their loan repayment. On an average the unit members are getting Rs.2000/- to 3500/- p.m. In the meantime Kudumbashree has established the brand names "Technoworld", "Technoshree", and "Technoinfos" in the data processing field.

Kudumbashree IT Units are capable of doing any type of data processing works in English, Malayalam and Tamil. There is no other single organisation in Kerala having the capacity of doing


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bulk data entry work in a distributed manner covering all the 14 districts. By executing the work in a distributed manner will help the speedy completion of the work as well as cost effective to the customers.

Other initiatives in the IT field:

1. Vidyashree IT @ School Units

Kudumbashree has facilitated to start 151 Computer Education units at Govt. and Private Secondary Schools under IT @ School project of Education Department, Govt. of Kerala for imparting computer education for High School students. The group size is from 5 to 10 members depending upon the number of students in each school. 910 women got employment under this project.

2. Computer Hardware Units

There was a growing demand from Kudumbashree data processing units and IT @ School education units for computers and computer related services. This has given birth to Kudumbashree Computer Hardware Assembling units. At present 5 computer hardware units are functioning in 4 different locations. They are selling computer in the brand name of Kudumbashree Computer Links (KCL).

Kudumbashree has a well-organized system for monitoring the day-to-day activities of all these units. All the units have Telephone and Internet connectivity.

Kudumbashree Support

Training:

Kudumbashree has provided various trainings to the IT Unit members on technical as well as managerial aspects. A six day PIP training by EDII, Ahamedabad is a compulsory training to all units between 6 to 12 months of its inception.

Canvassing orders:-

Kudumbashree has helped the units to canvass the Data Processing works of various Government Departments worth Rs. 8.22 crores. Some of the major Govt. departments entrusted the data processing works to Kudumbashree Units are Panchayat Directorate, State Finance Commission, Information Kerala Mission (IKM), Municipal Directorate , Civil Supplies Department, Registration Department, Kerala State Housing Board, Public Relations Department, Rubber Board, Employment Exchanges, Motor Vehicles Department, Tribal development Department, Social Welfare Department, Rural Development Department, Revenue Department, Department of Public Grievances and


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Pensions, Govt. of India. New Delhi etc. The units have undertaken the Web site designing and hosting of Public Relations Department, State Planning Board and Kerala Power Finance Corporation Ltd., Socio Economic Unit Foundation, Thiruvananthapuram Development Authority (TRIDA), Kerala Agriculture Department, Clean Kerala Mission., RSVY Project, Palakkad, Department of Economics & Statistics etc and some of the web sites are still maintained by our units.

Software Development:

Kudumbashree has a well-qualified software team at Head Office. In some cases the Kudumbashree software team is developing data entry software as per requirements of the customers. These will helps to canvass more data entry works to Kudumbashree IT Units. The service of this team is also using for trouble shooting on Software and Hardware related problems in Kudumbashree IT Units at free of cost.

Workshops/Seminars

Before starting any major data processing work distributed through Kudumbashree, the representatives of the IT Units will be called for a workshop at Thiruvananthapuram and explained the software and the entire process. They will also be given hands of practice on the software and its installation and data backup operations. The final data from the units is also collected at Kudumbashree Head office for quality checking and consolidation before transferring the data to the customers concerned.

Future Plans:

1. Kudumbashree is planning to increase the data processing units to 100 units from the present 78.

2. Each unit should have their own buildings within next 5 years.

3. A federation of these groups will be formed and equip them to canvass and execute bulk data processing works from within and outside India.

4. Develop the units as a major BPO agency in the state.5. Explore other areas such as content creation, web site

designing, hosting & maintenance, Computer training, e-governance etc.

Kudumbashree used IT as an effective tool to eradicate poverty among the poor and provide opportunities in the high tech area. By setting up IT units in different parts of state, the Mission helps to minimize technological divide between the rich and the poor. When the technology giants use IT for market invasion and profit making, the poor in Kerala using IT as a tool to win their daily bread.


Kudumbashree

50K Employment for Educated YouthLarge-scale unemployment of educated youth resulted in the

slow economic progress and social unrest in Kerala. Unemployment rate increased as the state excelled in the areas of education and health sectors. But fewer employment opportunities in the state created new set educated poor youth who are sitting idle and contributing nothing to their families or state. As a result, the development of the state took a nosedive creating wider gaps between rich and the poor. The negative work culture among the youth and over active political trade unions gifted the state with a label, a 'problem state' that stayed with God's own country forever. The tarnished image of the state kept industrial houses shying away from investing in the state. Consequent degeneration in the economic development during the past decades a sizable population of the state has migrated to within and out side the country. The job opportunities became lesser and lesser and education became bane to poor families as the educated youth were eyeing only on government jobs that are very few in numbers.

The poor families were the victims of the unemployment as the aged parents had to support their children who are educated unemployed, not only for their food but also for their daily expenses.

Keralities are depending on other states for most of the consumer items like vegetables, rice, clothes, toiletry items etc. This dependency to other states can be reduced to a certain extent since most of these items can be produced locally through small-scale micro enterprises. There is a large army of educated unemployed youth in our state whose productive potential has not yet canalized properly for self-employment ventures.

The State Government in the past largely depended on the centrally sponsored programmes such as IRDP, PMRY, SJSRY and SGSY to create self employment opportunities for the youth in the urban and rural areas. But very often it is seen that the annual targets and resources available to the state under these programmes were very meager compared to the requirements. Rigidity of the programmes too made it less attractive; Programmes such as PMRY could not create a long lasting impact in the self-employment scenario in our state. Most often bankers also express their dissatisfaction on the content and coverage.

It did not take care of the necessary pre-loan environment creation such as providing right kind of information to potential entrepreneurs, creating necessary awareness among the youth, developing their capabilities, enhancing their confidence to venture into an enterprises, arranging for necessary technical and


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managerial training to them etc. Sponsoring agencies usually did not offer a continued handholding and facilitation services. Repayment of loans used to be of least priority to many. This was the general scenario when Kudumbashree started functioning in Kerala. Having realized these lacunas in the self employment sector, it was our sincere effort among the Kudumbashree team to create a positive change in this field.

We tried our level best to 'do things differently' and as a result of which, now that everybody started realizing that it is possible to establish successful micro enterprises even by the poor people through self employment schemes.

The Special employment programme of State Government-50 K

The State Government have now come up with an ambitious scheme to facilitate the youth especially who belongs to the BPL families to seek employment opportunities. The Govt. of Kerala has announced its decision through the budget speech in the Kerala Legislative Assembly during February 2004 and the State Poverty Eradication Mission – Kudumbashree is designated to implement this programme.

Objective

To facilitate 50000 youth in securing sustainable employment opportunities

To foster economic development by creating jobs for the poor

To identify innovative areas to set up micro enterprises for the youths from BPL families

To provide hand holding and escort services to the new generation entrepreneurs

To capacitate the Local Self Government Institutions to take up the challenge

To empower and enable the CBOs of poor women to take up the lead role

Methodology

Self-employment through micro enterprises would be the methodology for providing gainful employment to the youths. Also improving the employability of youth for the current employment market through various types of training and capacity building is another area of interest.

I. Employment Creation through Micro Enterprise


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To generate additional employment opportunities and to bring down the incidence of poverty, micro enterprise is the best tool and the Kudumbashree has acquired vast experience in this field over the 5 years. The micro enterprises set up by Kudumbashree in urban and rural areas of the State by individuals and groups are performing well. Kudumbashree has gained experience in venturing into innovative micro enterprises such as IT @ school programme, Paper bag and cloth bag units, solid waste management, Vanila Nurseries, Agri –Horti- Herbal Nurseries, Kerashree Coconut oil production, Ornamental fish culture etc. implemented in the rural areas itself is a proof of innovation. Similarly Kudumbashree would like to concentrate on other developing areas such Precision agriculture, Food processing, Multi-Purpose Job Clubs, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) etc.

Under this programme Kudumbashree is extending support to start micro enterprises of –

1. Individual entrepreneurs2. Group enterprises consisting of 5 members, 10 members or 5

to 10 members according to the need and requirement of the activity

3. Groups consisting exclusive female members4. Groups consisting of exclusive male members.5. Groups consisting of both male and female members (Mixed

Groups).

Support from Kudumbashree

1. Training

It is well said by Economists that the ‘entrepreneurs are not born but created’. Kudumbashree is always driven by this motivating observation and entrepreneurship development is one of the major activities taken up by this Mission. Capacity building of the various functionaries of Kudumbashree at different levels, development of micro enterprise volunteers, identifying the right entrepreneur for the right activity, product development, training for entrepreneurs – EDP, skill development, Performance Improvement programmes, Market development and diversification etc – are the prime training areas for entrepreneurship development.

On this line Kudumbashree has conducted -

i. State level workshop for micro enterprise developmentii. State level workshop for developing strategy for training

and to develop training modulesiii. Sensitization programmes for Panchayat / CDS

functionaries


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iv. Trainers’ Training Programme (Including Business Opportunity Identification of at least 5 cluster opportunities per district)

v. Scanning the entrepreneurial opportunities with the help of EDII, Ahamedabad

vi. Identifying, Training and Placing of Micro Enterprise volunteers (283 volunters)

vii. Training for RIS volunteers

The process of Identification and selection of potential entrepreneurs has been started by the Community Development Societies (CDS) during November 2004. Up-to December 2004, 65 activities were identified. About 10500 potential entreprenuers were also identified for starting 1000 micro enterprises and initial EDP trainings were also conducted.

After 6 months of starting the units a Performance Improvement Training of 6 days duration will be given the unit member with the help of EDII, Ahamedabad.

Based on the activities Kudumbashree will be developed Common Facility centers and further graduation to Business Incubator. Kudumbashree is also working on Net working of micro enterprises for market support.

2. Promotional Support

Micro Enterprises Volunteer (MEV)

To provide effective handholding and escort services to the entrepreneurs Kudumbashree has tried out a best practice to develop Micro Enterprise Volunteers (MEVs). The MEV will help the CDS to identify the right entrepreneur and to develop potential product idea. They are also providing support to the entrepreneurs for linking their projects with financial institutions. The MEVs are graduates or post graduates belonging to below poverty line families and hails from Neighbourhood groups. In the present project a provision is given by Kudumbashree to support the MEV @ Rs.500/- per enterprise group having an investment of Rs.2 lakh or more. The volunteer will also get a promotional assistance @ Rs.100/- per month from each Micro enterprise for one year towards the hand holding support he/she provides to the groups.


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3. Financial support from Kudumbashree

To set up micro enterprises by the youth a limited financial support is extended to them from Kudumbashree. The amount of subsidy to be paid to the entrepreneurs is:

Sl. No.

ItemNo. of

members in the Unit

Admissible subsidy

1

i. Group Activity 10 or more

Rs.1, 00,000/- or 50% of the project cost whichever is less

ii. Group Activity 5 Members

Rs.50, 000/- or 50% of the project cost whichever is less

iii.Group Activity

6 to 9 members

Rs.50, 000/- + 10,000 each for additional members over 5 persons or 50% of the project cost whichever is lower

2 Individual Units One

30% of the project cost or Rs 7,500/- whichever is less.

4. Human Resource Requirement – Professional Managerial Support

To set up micro enterprises in a massive way to cater the employment needs of 50000 youth within a stipulated time frame on a campaign mode, Kudumbashree got support of 8 highly qualified professionals from reputed Management Schools as Entrepreneurial Development Consultants. Their service is sponsored by Swedish Development Programe (SDC) through CAPDECK. They are responsible for identifying potential entrepreneurs; develop product ideas, development of training strategy, modules, organizing training programmes and monitor the entire programme.

5. Handholding & Escort Service

Kudumbashree gaining experience from the past provide right kind of information to potential entrepreneurs by holding general awareness meets, general training programme for creating awareness and developing their capabilities, organizing skill development programmes with the involvement of technology centers, programmes for enhancing their confidence etc. As part of the escort service, the post implementation training programmes organized by Kudumbashree as Performance Improvement Programme (PIP) has high relevance in the sustainability of micro


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enterprises. Kudumbashree has already entered into a dynamic tie up with Entrepreneurship Development of India (EDI), Ahamedabad.

6. Repayment Information System (RIS)

Kudumbashree developed Repayment Information Systems (RIS) a unique online information system for tracking the entrepreneurs and monitoring the enterprises. Software for RIS has been developed and already in operation. RIS volunteers were identified and trained and they are positioned in the field. The RIS system provides right information at the right time to enable the functionaries of Kudumbashree at various levels to monitor the credit repayment and the growth of the unit.

7. Awards & Recognition

In the Micro Enterprise Development Programme apart from the entrepreneurs several agencies such as Local Self Governments, Community Development Societies, Financial institutions, NGOs, Technical and Research Institutions etc. and individuals like Micro Enterprise Volunteers and Officials are actively involved for the successful implementation. For making a health competition among the participating agencies Kudumbashree has constituted an award in reorganization and appreciation for the excellent performance of such agencies and individuals who took active part in the process.

II. Improving the Employability of educated Youth

In the wage employment sector enormous employment opportunities are emerging with the changes in global economy but the same could not be channelised for the youths in BPL families due to the following constraints.

1. The poor employability of the youth2. The opportunities are not accessible due to lack of proper

information and awareness

Tourism, Ayurveda, Bio-Technology, Banking & Insurance, Other financial Services, Call Centre Jobs, Precision Agriculture, high quality services in retailing etc. are some of the sectors where adequately trained man power is not available currently. The State Poverty Eradication Mission has a proposal to launch a massive training and capacity building programme to improve the employability of the youths and to set up a Virtual Employment Exchange (VEE) to interact with the existing employers and to access the employment opportunities both locally and globally.


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Conclusion

The State Poverty Eradication Mission – Kudumbashree since its inception conceived micro enterprises as an effective tool for poverty reduction and local economic development. In this direction Kudumbashree has a good track record in formulating innovative projects and developing a different methodology for setting up micro enterprises. The efforts so far made by Kudumbashree have created employment opportunities to more than lakh families. It is the right time to replicate and scale up the pilot models already developed by Kudumbashree in a massive way. The announcement of State Government to provide employment opportunities to 50,000 educated youth through Kudumbashree Community Based Organisations is considered as an ideal opportunity to scale up and replicate the experience gained in the sector in the past. It is presumed that the new employment generation project will help to reduce poverty in the state as well as pave way for local economic development.


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Direct marketing - Cakewalk for Kudumbashree

Marketing became an uphill task as micro enterprises thrived in Kerala as a result of Kudumbashree innovations. The poor entrepreneurs did not have the money for mega advertising campaigns or branding their products. Kudumbashree viewed marketing problem as an opportunity and decided to capitalize it by building a network of its own direct marketing groups in the state. Today, Kudumbashree has the largest network of direct marketing groups in the state that helps entrepreneurs of Kudumbashree to market their products every corner of the state in the most cost effective way. Today even the multinational companies are seeking the help of Kudumbashree direct marketing groups for reaching out people. During Christmas, direct marketing groups in Ernakulam district sold three thousand five hundred Kilograms of cake in a day and that too while competing with the high voltage sales blitz of big city brands.

Various direct marketing units sold their cakes at prices ranging from Rs 40 to Rs 65 for 500 gms and at a price of Rs 80 to Rs 90 per Kg.

This year the door-delivery system has drawn more customers compared to previous years. 83 direct marketing groups have been established in Ernakulam district alone empowering 830 poor women economically in Ernakulam district.

The Kripa Unit functioning at Palarivattom has sold the maximum number of cakes during this Christmas, said Kabeer B. Haroon, District Mission Co-ordinator of Kudumbashree, adding that this unit is expected to bring in a profit of more than Rs 50,000."We deliver the cake within 15 minutes of receiving an order," said Molly Charlie of the Kripa Unit.

The Sangamam unit based on Edakochi has sold out almost 700 Kgs of cakes in different flavours in just two days. They have sold most of their cakes to Christian customers and received bulk orders from various residential flats.

Majority of the cakes from units like Kripa Direct Marketing functioning at Palarivattom and Dreams Unit at Maradu are being sold to individual households. The Village Office and Krishi Bhavan at Maradu have given orders in bulk to the Dreams Unit.

These units functioning at different places in the city supply cakes from their respective homes also. Their cakes are also sold in bakeries. Another attractive feature is that their cakes weigh


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the exact quantity given on the cover. The success of their initiative helped them to identify another opportunity as they are planning to deliver provisions through the tele-networking system in cities.

Annamma Abraham –

Annamma Abraham looks back with great satisfaction and joy. She heads the Kripa Direct Marketing Group in Kadavanthra, a suburb in Ernakulam city. Direct marketing, a novel initiative has helped her to realize her long cherished dreams. She has built a house with a bank loan of Rs. 3,00,000 from state Bank of India.

Kripa Direct marketing group was established in 2000 July 3 after one week training to market Sabari Tea, a brand promoted by state Civil Supplies Corporation. Initially the group made small profit but as the volume of sales increased gradually. They started marketing Kudumbashree products from various parts of the state.

“I ventured into direct marketing when my life was at cross roads. My husband, the only earning member in my family who was working as an artist had to undergo a surgery for his eye and was out of employment. My son who was studying in the college, had to be supported. We were living in a hut on the suburbs of city”, says Annamma who is earning more than Rs10,000 per month from direct marketing.

“It was not easy at the beginning. Kudumbashree training changed our perspective and approach towards life and marketing. I have started going to places with bundle of products in the city bus. Today I’m driving my Sunny and have a mobile. All group members drive own vehicle and cover more areas with greater volume of sales. My family members support me with great encouragement and appreciation. We have proved beyond doubt that poor women can excel if given an opportunity”, says Annamma who is also a faculty member for direct marketing training. Five years in direct marketing empowered the poor woman immensely. She can rule her life.


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Community Health VolunteerThey came in white coats keeping the stethoscope on one

hand and the blood pressure apparatus (sphygmomanometer) on the other. In their shoulder there was a kitbag containing some material. They posed like Para medical practitioners. They took out the spirit lamp, test tube and test tube holder, collected urine in a sterilised bottle they were keeping and pored it in the benedict's solution and heated it using spirit lamp. The audience were curiously watching the change in colour. They explained to them that the person whose urine was tested is diabetic and need advanced check up by a medical practitioner. After the test, with full confidence they talked about the incidence of life style diseases causing due to blood pressure and diabetics. They said 'we are health volunteers and not Doctors. We serve the poor for detection of blood pressure, diabetics etc. We prescribe medicines for fever, cold etc. and also maintain a community drug depot for providing ORS packets and life saving drugs'. The two women who were addressing a small gathering - a meeting of Kudumbashree NHG - are the Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) of the NHG specially trained to test urine sugar and check the blood pressure.

Kudumbashree has an ambitious programme to create health care system at NHG level. These volunteers are trained under the programme, with help and support of health and family welfare department.

The advancement made by the state in health sector is widely appreciated. Many of the health indicators are at par with the developed countries. The life expectancy rate, sex ratio, infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate etc are examples. Despite all these developments in the health sector, the poor find it difficult to access the health facilities available. The infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate in the state are low compared to the national average, but if a death take place that child or mother belongs to a poor family. The water borne diseases and poverty related diseases are wide spread in the habitats of poor. Leptospirocis, dengue fever, diarrhoea, whopping cough, TB, jaundice etc have become common among poor. The poor who are affected with deadly diseases such as cancer, paralysis, kidney problems and cardiac problems are also on the increase.

In a recent study conducted at Venganoor grama panchayat, in Trivandrum District revealed that most of the common diseases and deadly diseases are very often affects the poor. The study mainly confined to 4478 families having membership in NHG and the time span is of the past two months. The table given below is self-explanatory.


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DiseaseNo. of

persons affected

DiseaseNo. of

persons affected

Diarrhoea 111 Jaundice 22Typhoid 37 Lungs

disease 293T.B. 33 Leptospirosis 6

Rabies 3 Cancer 27Leprosy 3 Mental

disorder 32

AIDS 0 Gynaec problems 71

Cardiac problem 98 Physically

challenged 162Mentally

challenged 72

The poor when affected with a deadly disease like Cancer, T.B. etc the family will be thrown to destitution. He may not be in a position to procure costly life savings drugs. In a normal situation also the life style diseases are on the increase and affects the man-days of the persons. In most of the families income is largely dependent on a single person and if he become sick the family will be forced to starve.

Kudumbashree has taken care of this situation and the Community Health Volunteer (CHV) of every NHG is properly trained to tackle the public health problems. The Community Health Volunteers maintain a register which contains the details of family members and the health problems of each. The details regarding pregnant and lactating mothers and new borne babies are also recorded in the register. In the weekly meetings of the NHG, the Community Health Volunteer reviews the health situation of each family and the NHG intervenes wherever required. The Community Health Volunteers also liaise with health authorities and bring in health care to the needy people. Community Health Volunteer acts as a volunteer for direct administration of medicine to the T.B. patients under the new programme Direct Observation Therapy (DOT).

The local primary health centre used to convene special meetings of Community Health Volunteers during the outbreak of epidemics. They actively involve in community health education and awareness creation programmes. They maintain an ORS depot for administering ORS therapy to the children affected by diarrhea. They are now the representatives and spokesperson of the community and they articulate the needs and demands of the representing households in different forums of the local bodies.


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They motivate their family members and their group members towards adopting better health practices, promoting small family norms preventing disease, promoting physical and mental health, personal hygiene, sanitation and control of infectious diseases. They discuss ways and means towards community health and the community itself identifies their immediate needs. They prefer proper sanitation facility and safe drinking water as the immediate necessity for a healthy living

Health Entrepreneurship

Health volunteers on proper training have proved that they can function as service provider in the health sector. The educated volunteers selected from the NHGs are given suitable training in the use of glucometer, pressure apparatus, weighing balance etc. They visit houses to provide onsite medical assistance where immobile patients, aged persons, needy elderly patients living alone without anybody to cater their health needs. They test blood sugar using glucometer and read the blood pressure level, take body weight on regular intervals. If abnormal situation persists the patients will be advised to contact the physician immediately. The volunteer gets a small fee paid by the patients for the service rendered by her. In fact the fee charged by the health volunteers seems to be on the lower side when compared to the laboratories. Seeing their success of this innovation, the state government have accepted this as a new model and a project called 'Santhwanam' is launched in the state budget for 2005-06.


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Sichithra, differently abled today

Till December last, Sichithra woke up every morning only to lie in bed for the rest of the day. Today, like every other child, she is doing what she has wanted to do all her life. She is going to school!

Sichithra is 14 and she is ailing from multiple disabilities under Cerebral Palsy, and partial Blindness. Confined to her bed and the four walls of her room she had no friends and nothing to look forward to.

It has been six months since she joined BUDS (a special school for differently abled children) and today she has her own circle of friends and is an eager participant in all school activities. She is among her own and is free to be herself here.

In May 2004, the Kerala State Government’s Poverty Mission - called Kudumbashree - recognised that the needs of the most marginalized of the poor were not being addressed, during a program to create a model environment for the poor in Venganur panchayat. Kudumbashree and Venganur panchayat realised that disabled children in situations of poverty, while being the most vulnerable, were not being reached by any of the variety of poverty programs. In fact, these children often live in isolation and alienation, neglected by the community due to social stigmas and by their families due to already scarce resources. Their families are ill-equipped to deal with their special needs; resulting in children who are who do not receive proper medical attention and who do not reach their full developmental potential.

Recent World Bank estimates suggest that one in five of the world’s poorest suffer from a disability and that only 2% of people with disabilities in developing countries have access to rehabilitation and appropriate basic services. The Spastic Society quotes 70 million people with disabilities in India, out of which one in three are children. And schools that cater to the physically or mentally challenged number in the thousands. In Kerala, the limited number of schools for children with disabilities are primarily concentrated in urban areas. These schools are practically non-existent in rural areas. But seventy-five percent of India’s population live in rural areas and the instance of disability is higher in rural areas. Therefore the scant resources available to the disabled are concentrated in areas where the need is not as prevalent.

Disability specialists recognize that early intervention could arrest and diminish the effects of disability in children, whether involving intense stimulation with developmentally delayed


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children, targeted exercises and therapy with physically disabled children, orientation and mobility work with blind children or early introduction of sign language with deaf children. Without such intervention, these children are destined to grow up to be the poorest members of society.

And so – despite a lack of funds – Kudumbashree decided that they would take on the challenge of providing for these excluded children, one community at a time. Kudumbashree and the community of Venganur began with the idea of building a very special school for the children.

Their first task was to identify the children in need. Two women from the CDS level were recruited as Health Coordinators and three women from each of the 15 ADSs were recruited as Assistant Health coordinators, to assist in the identification of children with disabilities between the ages of six months and eighteen years. The CDS and ADS are part of the hierarchy of organized groups of poor women in the community, working to improve their lives and the lives of those in their community. The women were chosen for this project based on their qualification and motivation. They attended a five-day training course provided by the Child Development Center, Thiruvananthapuram – equipping them to detect the signs of disability.

The volunteers spent two days conducting a door-to-door search in below poverty line (BPL) homes, initially identifying 600 children with a variety of disabilities. A team of doctors and their assistants completed a screening process in which the list of children was narrowed to 240. During the screening process, any immediate medical needs of the children were also identified and directed for proper treatment. The District Medical Officer and his team conducted a further screening process and narrowed the list to 62 children who had the required 40% or more disability. Each of these children was issued Disability Certificates that allow them to receive financial assistance from the Social Welfare Department and certain concessions. They will also be issued Disability Cards that will make them eligible for a variety of government benefits.

After visiting the Adarsh School for Differently-Abled Children in Cochin, Kudumbashree’s commitment to build a school for the children was re-enforced. They realized that, as the majority of the children identified have 60% or greater disability, integration into mainstream schools would be out of most of these children’s reach. Therefore a school was needed to provide a comfortable environment where these children can fully express their unique talents and develop to their full potential.


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Venganur panchayat graciously provided the land for the school and funded the building. They have pledged a portion of their budget for the day-to-day expenses of the school. Kudumbashree was able to avail of government funding to provide chairs and tables specially designed for the children’s’ needs, mobility equipment and hearing aids.

Current staff includes one psychologist, five teachers who were trained for a fortnight at Adarsh School, and a volunteer principal. They are dedicated individuals, drawn from the community, with a commitment to seeing the school grow and succeed.

This is the first time in India that a Panchayat and a grassroots group of women have come together to create an initiative to meet the needs of children with disabilities. They have created an environment unheard of in government- or Panchayat-run schools, in terms of the beauty of the facility.

The school is administered by a board consisting of:

Panchayat PresidentOne DoctorDirector, BhalavanProgram Officer, KudumbashreeDistrict Mission Co-ordinator, KudumbashreeCDS ChairpersonTwo parents.

With such representation from members of the local government, Kudumbashree, and the community; the school can be assured of continuous and consistent leadership.

On 16 August, 2004; thirty-eight children began attending this brightly-colored, six-room school, dressed in new uniforms and arriving in a specially-provided bus. But outshining this lovely, new school were the smiles of the children and their parents.

There are thirty-eight children currently attending Buds School. Their disabilities include Autism, Cerebral Palsy, blindness, deafness, mobility difficulties and speech impairments. There are nineteen children with mental retardation, of which four also have Cerebral Palsy.

The school day begins with exercise, physiotherapy, and yoga; based on the needs of the child. The parent is encouraged to assist in all physiotherapy. The children are then split into groups, according to development level, to either enjoy musical games, listen to stories, or learn to read and write. The teaching methods


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are tailored to each child and are based on the play activities (Play-way method).

As part of the holistic approach to developing the children, Buds School provides the children with:

Medical attention: surgeries or corrective measures to alleviate or cure disability

Individualised Therapy: physical, cognitive, social, vocational, mobility, orientation, and speech therapy and sign language training tailored to the needs of the child

Education Nutrition: a nutritious meal will be provided Mobility equipment, hearing aids where appropriate Mainstreaming: every effort is made, where possible, to

integrate the child into mainstream schools to more fully integrate the child into the community and society

Vocational training: where appropriate, the children will be taught an income-generating skill. The mothers will also be taught income-generating activities as part of a separate program to enable them to more easily cover the costs of raising a differently-abled child.

The mothers are encouraged to accompany the child to school each day so that they can learn and be involved in the therapy. This enables a continuation of therapy in the home on days the child cannot attend school. The parents are shown in a real way that their children can progress and develop!

Children, who formerly were had no opportunities, often never leaving their bed or their home; can now be found laughing and interacting with other children and beginning to make strides in their rehabilitation. Children who often were minimally responsive to their environment are now sitting up facing the world, clapping their hands in enjoyment! For most of the children, this is their first experience leaving their homes – so even the bus ride to school is a big adventure. Children who had little stimulation or interaction are now growing, learning, and socializing with other children -with their faces wreathed in smiles!

As funds become available for specialized therapists, the children will progress even further. As the school grows, it aims to provide for all of the developmental needs of the children.

The approach to these children’s education and therapy is interactive and evolving - with the children and parents involved in creating the best methods.


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Ultimately the challenge is to create a perfect environment for the disabled-children of below poverty families. We are planting the seed of hope, opportunity, and fulfillment for these precious buds.

BUDS has proved a point – the State Government has provided for its replication in 40 panchayats in this year.


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Micro Housing- A Sweet Dream

Rehne ko Ghar Nahin – saara Hindustan hamara ! The plight of the Indian poor is well said in these statements. There is no shelter for him to live.... when the whole country belongs to him. The poor people in our country live in 'huts or sheds' they call 'home'. Signifying the depth of their deprived states, as food shelter and clothing are the basic needs and they are not able to meet those.

Kudumbashree experienced that most of the poor people lived either in huts or sheds or in damaged houses, which they cannot afford to repair. Many of them live in rented house for the need of shelter though paying the rent is too difficult for them, as it demands a major portion of their income.

Many women having gained experience in Micro finance, thrift & credit and managing small sums of money started aspiring for better things in their life. Housing is surely the most important one. “New our NHG has about Rs. 35,000 as savings and Rs. 265000 as loans 12 of us need houses. We want a loan which we can repay over 8-10 years in small sums which we can afford to have. We waited for 7-8 years for a free home from government. Now we realise that even without my free houses, if we have opportunity to own a safe house, we can earn more and save more to repay. It will give confidence and self esteem rather than waiting long for free houses without any say of hope”. Says Karthyayaniamma, member of Aiswarya NHG of Pudussery Grama Panchayat, Palakkadu district. These words of wisdom of thousands of poor women, translated into a micro finance based housing programmes, first ever conceived in the country by the mission.

So the mission developed a programme for assisting the poor people to build or repair their houses. This programme was launched when the mission learnt that in spite of central many sponsored assistance programmes in hosing like the Indira Awas Yojana, VAMBAY etc all the housing needs of the poor are not being met. So the mission identified a section of the poor who were in fact willing to avail themselves learns from banks provided they are given to them at a lowest possible rate and in a hassle free manner. This programme was specially launched for the poor people who have at least 1.5 cents (60 m2) of lands on their own or provided by the LSGs. The loans are being arranged from Nationalise Banks such as SBI, SBT, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, IOB, Indian Bank, Dhanalakshmi Bank, Syndicate Bank, UBI and ICICI Bank.

This in fact facilitated better utilization of schemes as a section of the poor people could be catered to with micro housing while the


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more acute were given housing assistance under the central government scheme.

Innovations at every steps, that is what the mission is doing to assure that poverty is eradicated from the society. And these innovation such as micro housing are the remarkable catalysts that gives a leverage to our efforts and results, giving us more options and better ways to reach the goal.


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S3 (Self sufficient, Self reliant, Sustainable) Model Panchayats

The positive response of people towards the Kudumbashree programmes and the way people and administrators owned the Programme was highly inspiring for us. The development vision of people, enthusiastic elected representatives, committed social workers and officials, strong CDS system and the optimistic attitude of certain panchayats made Kudumbashree think, 'why not the objectives of the project targeted in 10 years, could be achieved in a shorter period and why not the above panchayats could be a model panchayat in the development process all over the state'? Then came the question, how a model panchayat, in a shorter period?

It is not just the lack of money, or lack of education or lack of good health alone that differentiates poor from rich. The needs of people, whether it is their physical needs, social needs, security needs or recognition needs all are inter related and complementary to each other. Hence, development of an individual or a community can be addressed effectively, only through a integrated approach. All sects of people have to be given separate attention while thinking of the total development of a community. With this idea of total development concept, we dream of a Self-sufficient, Self-reliant and Sustainable communities in the state. It was in this context, we have initiated a special project named 'S3 (Self sufficient, Self reliant, Sustainable) Panchayats'.

The project was opened to all panchayats, but the panchayats who came forward with the strong determination to take up the project was selected. As the first step, bench marking of the panchayats was done, based on the needs projects were chocked out. Child development, Geriatric care, Mentally and Physically challenged, Education, Ad descent care, Women empowerment, Enterprise Development, Employment opportunities for educational your, Agriculture / Animal Husbandry / Dairy Development, Revamping and Repositioning of traditional sector, Basic minimum needs, Destitute Identification and Rehabilitation were the areas of intervention emerged out of the bench marking process.

Kudumbashree has piloted three such innovative projects in 3 different panchayats in Kerala to put the vision into practice – Venganoor in Thiruvananthapuram district, Kodakara in Thrissur district and Munniyoor in Malappuram district were identified as model panchayats in the first phase. The local self-governments and the Community Based Organisations (CBO) are strongly facilitated by Kudumbashree to come forward with realistic and sustainable projects with a total development approach. In the second phase, the project was extended to 14 panchayats and is going to be expanded to another 70 panchayats.


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Following are the milestones targeted for S3 panchayats.

1. 100% coverage of BPL families.2. 50% increase in thrift within six months.3. 50% increase in loan within six months.4. 100% increase in the coverage of lease land farming.5. 50% NHGs linked with banks.6. Minimum of 50 number of group enterprises.7. 100% of housing, sanitation and drinking water facility.8. Formation of Balasabha completed within 3 months.9. Destitute families identified and project prepared for

rehabilitation.10. Health care system instituted within NHG.11. All families in NHGs brought under insurance

coverage.12. Participation of different department agencies, NGOs

ensured.13. Special Programmes for children, aged, women, youth,

physically and mentally challenged, prepared.14. Anti-poverty sub plan of the panchayat formulated.

Venganoor Stepping towards S3 Panchayat

Venganoor panchayat in Trivandrum district selected as one of the panchayat for S3 Project, taking into account its clear reflection of poverty, its close access to the tourist place Kovalam, people with an optimistic development vision, enthusiastic elected representatives, a strong CDS system and strong relation of Local Self Government and Kudumbashree CDS.

Kudumbashree conventions were organized in all 15 wards of the panchayat for orienting people to take up the new project of S3

. After that bench marking survey was held in all NHGs to analyse the needs and to frame action plans. A clear direction and guidance was given to the panchayat officials and charge officers to own up and plan their programmes, through training programmes. Women empowerment, micro enterprise development, revamping the traditional occupations, lease land farming, agriculture development, gender sensitization for men, environment protection etc. were the programmes emerged from the people. New ideas like women friendly, child friendly, old age friendly, farmer friendly, entrepreneur friendly and eco friendly panchayats emerged out of the needs enlisted in the bench marking process.


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Women Friendly PanchayatAs part of converting the panchayat in to a women friendly

panchayat and gaining the co-operation of men in this venture, people of Venganoor panchayat were gender sensitized through various awareness programmes. A seven-day camp on the gender sensitization was organized for the panchayat officials and men. An exhibition of theme posters was also organized to drive home the idea. Topics related to health, women issues, women laws, counselling, economic development etc., were discussed in the camp. Through these programmes, Vengannor Panchayat was declared as the first women friendly panchayats in Kerala. Child Friendly Panchayat

With the aim of preventing inter generation transmission of poverty, Balasabhas were organized for children. Through bench marking, the needs of the children were identified. Concentrating on their educational and health needs, school going children were given remedial education, supplied study materials, arranged vacation classes, conducted medical camps and issued health cards. Through medical camps the disabled were identified and a special school - Buds for their rehabilitation was started. School drop outs were given vocational training. Teenage clubs were formed and the members are given special awareness classes, carrier guidance and counseling by experts in child development field. Old age Friendly Panchayat

The needs of the identified aged people were assessed, issued health cards to them and were supported to avail the medical support system by linking with the existing medical institutions, ayurvedic, allopathic and homeopathic in and around the Panchayat. We are also planning to form special groups for the aged and their recreation clubs. As part of meeting their recreational needs we are planning to arrange their monthly get together. Many cultural clubs and fine arts college students have offered their resources to perform entertainment programme for the aged in the monthly meeting.Farmer friendly & Eco-friendly

As part of converting Venganoor panchayat in to an organic/eco-friendly panchayat, 122 hectors of land has been cultivated by our women groups. Our farm women are not using any artificial fertilizers for the last two years. Their products are sold as safe food in naturopathic centres and other market.

S3 Panchayaths will lead to prosperity of the villages in Kerala - Gramaswaraj, the great Mahatma had visioned. Kudumbashree is working towards to cherish his lost dream.


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Balasabha for Empowerment of Children

Anil sat at the backbench laying head on the desk and placed hands as headrest. In front of him, the Mathematics teacher has opened a new lesson and his lecture on ratio and proportion is in the air. The boy who came to the school with an empty stomach and spent the noontime with a few glasses of water felt much tired. He could not grasp anything that the teacher trying to explain. He was waiting for the bell to ring. And when he reaches home, the situation is not different. His mother was spinning the coir yarn by hand using raw husk fibre and she has to get the provisions for the day after selling the yarn. He sat at the side of his mother carelessly looking at the work she does.

The story of Anil is a real life situation in many of the habitats of poor. The children, of course given free universal education as an entitlement but how a child coming from such socio economic situation can swallow what is taught in school?

In Venganoor grama panchayat of Trivandrum district a sample study was conducted to find out the reason for dropping out children from school. The results are quite shocking in an egalitarian society like Kerala. A table depicting the reason for abandoning school by children in the age group of 10 to 15 is given below:

SlNo Reason No. of Children1 Financial difficulties 2362 Failed in Examination 653 To earn livelihood 314 To look after children below 75 Other reasons 4

Total 343

“Rich parents transfer their assets and wealth to next generation. Often through a will, more they transfer confidence, positive feelings and acquired expertise, exposure and experience. What about poor parents? They too transfer their belongings to next generation. Poor children also inherit many things from their parents. Lack of self confidence; negative reinforcements; lack of good company friendships; negative beliefs and pessimism, deep rooted belief in fate and destiny” The result is the sedimentation of fear, lack of confidence leading to the psychology of the defeated?

The "intergenerational transfer of poverty" is the main concern that the Mission has to address to make the poverty eradication efforts sustainable. "Catch them Young and nip the poverty at bud" is the guiding slogan that inspired Kudumbashree to think of focusing on poor children. A planned assistance – in education,


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value building, and personality development can induce confidence in them and equip them for the journey from poverty to prosperity, and well being.

The concept of Balasabha itself was inspired by the mock

activity of children. When the mothers meet in an NHG, the children often gathered nearby, imitating the proceedings of the NHG. So Kudumbashree thought why not use this as an opportunity to let the children learn. Subsequently the Balasabha took the shape of a formal organisation functioning in every ward of a local body. The membership range from 20 to 50 depending on the number of children in that ward. The children are in the age group of 10 to 15. They used to meet once in a week/fortnight and involve in plays, discussions related to their academics. In Panchayats an informal organisation set up like an academic council has since been created giving participation to social workers to act as resource persons to attend the Balasabha and guide the children. The academic council members include teachers, retired teachers and educated unemployed youth with an inclination for social work and they work voluntarily.

As of date, 19231 balasabhas have been formed in the state with membership of 302637 children. Each Balasabha provides a new rhythm and harmony to children and enlightens their lives. The ultimate aim is to emancipate the young generation of the BPL families from the vicious circle of poverty.

Balasabha Sangamam

During the Christmas vacation since December 2002, a mega children's festival is being held at 3 important towns of the State for 7 days. This mega event is known as Balasabha Sangamam. In this meet 600 children from all the districts take part in each center. The children from other parts of the state stay with the children of the town where the balasabha sangamam is held. A string of interesting activities and programmes were there in the meet including, activity oriented learning sessions, special sessions in science and in mathematics, work experience sessions in a variety of fields, training for making toys and learning equipments, opportunity to express talents in dance, music, drama etc. There were also opportunities to interact with renowned persons including Ministers, Judges, scientists, social activists cultural doyens and men of letters. The children get a rare opportunity to develop, sharpen and exhibit their latent talents. The meet has proved to be a grand success in imparting education, entertainment and empowerment.Remedial Education Centers (REC)


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The poor performance of the children in classrooms very often lead to failure in examinations and affects future career of the children. The poor socio economic situation of the child in fact prevent better performing in classrooms. To give him additional opportunities to learn lessons and to improve performance in school, Remedial Education Centers (RECs) are set up in the local body. The Remedial Education Centers (REC) is run by educated unemployed youth. This project give the opportunity to the students from poor families to learn better and also the unemployed youths to get a small income. The students since belong to most vulnerable families the Community Development Society arrange sponsorship. The RECs gets audiovisual equipments from social service organizations or donated by philanthropic individuals. The sponsorship of the child includes educational expense and food. The school going children as well as failed children are admitted in the remedial education centers.

Vacation classes

It has been observed that English, Mathematics and Science are the major subjects for whom these students very often fail. To improve the quality of education and self confidence special coaching classes conducted during summer vacation every year. In each local body, depending on the number of students appearing for the next 10th standard examination vacation classes would be arranged. In the vacation classes in addition to the routine curriculum, emphasis will be given to personality development, career development, entrepreneurship development etc. Regular counseling sessions are also included in the module for vacation classes to improve self-confidence.


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Women Empowerment - Kudumbashree Model

Gender equality and empowerment of women is accepted universally as an important aspect of development. It is obvious that there is a high gender gap in literacy, high drop out rate in girl students, high incidence of crime against women, high negligence in economic freedom, low involvement in decision making and very low recognition for their efforts and contribution in agriculture and allied sectors in India.

The State Poverty Eradication Mission, which aims at eradicating absolute poverty within a definite time frame, opted to achieve the goal through empowerment of women. The working slogan of the Mission is to reach out the family through women and reach out the community through family. The process of empowerment is by following sequential steps right from organizing them in to Community Based Organisation. A three-tier structure has been designed and developed by the Mission with the Neighbourhood groups (NHG) at its grass roots and a federated unit namely Area Development Society (ADS) at every ward of the local body and the Community Development Society (CDS) at the local body level.

Neighbourhood groups (NHG) is the basic unit of our women folk where they are free to ventilate their feelings, discuss their problems, share their joy, learn many new things and make joint effort to find solutions to their grievances. This is a platform, where, they discover themselves - their strengths, weaknesses and possibilities - to improve their present status of poverty. Hence, the first step of empowerment, that is self-discovery of the poor women takes place in the weekly meetings of the Neighbourhood Groups.

The NHGs are strengthened by nurturing it with facilitation trainings, education and strong support system of the Government, especially the support of Local Self Government. These support system strongly motivate them to come up with their dreams and Action Plans, which is the second step of their empowerment process. Then they start acting on the dream plans and on the process, they feel highly confident and empowered which results in the improvement in their poverty status. The process encompasses Political, Social, Educational and Economic aspects.

Political Empowerment

The women identified from poor families using 9 non-economic parameters are first admitted in the NHGs and from


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there, they were given the opportunity to move towards the leadership of the NHG. Each NHG has a five-member leadership team and these five member volunteer team constitute the general body of the Area Development Society (ADS). A seven-member team is further elected from the general body and again the elected members of all wards in a local body further constitute the general body of the Community Development Society at local body level. A nine-member committee with a Chairperson and vice Chairperson is elected and positioned at local body level. Being a member of the federation each women hailing from poor families gets an opportunity to rise to the leadership from the NHG to CDS. In every Village Panchayat, a slow and steady political process of elevating women to different tiers of leadership is visible.

Social Empowerment

The women especially of poor families once confined to the limited circle of their household is now enabled to actively participate in the NHGs, discuss the issues affecting their family and society at large. They are now organised to fight against the evils of the society such as illicit brewery, atrocities against women, illiteracy etc. They mobilize human resource and agitate against the social evils

Educational Empowerment through building capabilities

The self learning process they undergo through practical experience by mobilizing thrift, disbursement of loans, operating bank accounts, approaching banks for loans and undertaking small livelihood activities enables them to excel in their life and it is an educational experience that no formal school can offer. They are also facilitated to inquire in to the educational developments of their offspring to prevent intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Economic Empowerment

To eradicate poverty it is essential to bring in prosperity by actively involving in livelihood activities. The members of NHGs are facilitated to undertake small livelihood activities to improve their living conditions. The starter point is the thrift and credit operation through which they learn the basic lessons of economic development. In Kudumbashree the cumulative thrift collected by the 151406 NHGs amounts to Rs 432.35 crores and they had disbursed a loan amounting to Rs 874.78 crores among its members. The members of the NHGs are further motivated to undertake large-scale micro enterprises. As of date the women from poor families have taken up 1268 group micro enterprises and 14807 individual micro enterprises in the urban areas and 19343 group enterprises and 13849 individual enterprises in the rural areas. Involvement in the micro enterprises not only enables them


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to get rid of the poverty situation by improving the living conditions but they learn new lessons that could lead them to develop their personality, inculcate a sense of activism, to take up an active role in their family life and ability in decision making and beyond everything they thrive across the gender barriers.

Kudumbashree views this as empowerment of women.


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What makes Kudumbashree unique?

Holistic approach to poverty reduction

Kudumbashree perceive poverty as a state of multiple deprivations. Unlike the conventional theories and practices the monetary factors are not only the contributory to poverty, but it is due the deprivation of basic needs, basic facilities and basic rights. To eradicate absolute poverty, Kudumbashree attempt to restore the denied or deprived entitlements by enabling the poor to access the same.

Reaching the Unreached

Kudumbashree has been successful in reaching the unreached. Though we have been implementing various poverty alleviation programmes for the last several decades, it is observed that the rock bottom poor who live in utter distress and despair were left out from the coverage. Kudumbashree has reached this rock bottom poor, the destitutes, physically and mentally challenged and other most vulnerable sections of society through its unique programme 'Ashraya' – the Destitute Identification, Rehabilitation and Monitoring (DIRM) project.

Mission mode

Kudumbashree functions as a mission rather than a project. It encompasses a multi departmental and multi disciplinary team. The mission has developed and maintained a flexible style of functioning. To address the multiple deprivations of the poor, Kudumbashree try to converge various anti-poverty programmes implemented in the State.

Organisation of the poor

Kudumbashree has developed an innovative methodology to identify the poor using non-economic parameters and organized the poor under a well networked Community Based Organization (CBO). The non-economic parameters are transparent and simple that can be used by the community. The entire poor families of the state have been brought under the organization structure. The organizational structure goes beyond thrift & credit and micro enterprises and it tackles various dimensions of poverty. Self Help to Entrepreneurship


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The Community Based Organisation of the Kudumbashree promotes self help and mutual help. The members of the Neighbourhood Groups of the Kudumbashree are motivated to venture into livelihood activities and micro enterprises. The economic activity of Neighbourhood groups never confine to thrift and credit operations alone.

Variety of Economic Interventions

Kudumbashree facilitate the women from the poor families to venture into micro enterprises to earn a substantial income to over come the poverty situation. In this route Kudumbashree has developed a series of new enterprise ideas that enable the poor women to fetch more income and profit and make it sustainable. Kudumbashree has instituted technology, innovation and revolving funds to promote innovative micro enterprises. In the realm of micro enterprises Kudumbashree has its own brand, which has been accepted by the various stakeholders.

Beyond capacity building- building capabilities

Kudumbashree perceive capability deprivation as one among the root causes of poverty and building capability of poor is inevitable to make poverty alleviation efforts sustainable. In this direction, Kudumbashree has initiated a series of activities to build capability of poor. This includes the human resource development programmes for the leaders of community based organization, technical, skill development, entrepreneurial training programmes and performance improvement programme for the entrepreneurs, general awareness programme for the community at large. This process enables the women from poor families to get educationally empowered.

Linkage with Local Self Government

In Kudumbashree the community based organizations are created under the leadership of Local Self Government. Unlike any other SHG oriented poverty reduction programmes, the Kudumbashree CBOs are seamlessly integrated with Panchayat Raj system. The Neighbourhood Group, the grass root level of organization of Kudumbashree is taken as next step of decentralization ie. an organization structure just below the grama sabha. In Urban Local Bodies earmarks 2 % of their own revenue for the poverty alleviation programmes of Kudumbashree in addition to the projects implemented through decentralized planning programme. MIS and IT enabled Information backbone


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Kudumbashree has developed its own unique information flow system right from the grass root level organization to the State headquarters backed by information technology. Kudumbashree has a network of 77 data processing units 151 IT @ School unit spread over the state to catch up the data processing connected with Management Information System (MIS). The information generated at Neighbourhood groups are transmitted over to the Area Development Society and to the Community Development Society within definite time-frame is carried over to district and state headquarters through online. The enables the Mission to have effective monitoring and supervision of all the activities from grass root level. Each and every destitute family is also monitored online on a monthly basis. Also it enables the mission to exercise management and control in all operations. This may be the best networked information system in any Government programme in the state. The Entrepreneurial IT units coupled with own brand of PCs (Kudumbashree Computer Links (KCL)) of Kudumbashree help the mission in achieving this network.

Brand equity

Within a short span of time, Kudumbashree has gained reputation and goodwill in the State and in the Country as well. It has been identified as one among the 20 best practices of the Country by UNDP. During 2000 Kudumbashree model has won gold medal for "Best innovation" under auspices of Commonwealth Association for Public Administrations and Management (CAPAM). The award was received by Kudumbashree for the country. The performance of Kudumbashree in poverty reduction efforts, the thrift and credit operations, the linkage banking programmes and the enterprises where bank finance is attracted have been functioning to extreme satisfaction of the banking community. Wherever bank loans involved, 100% repayment is ensured through the unique Repayment Information System (RIS) developed by Kudumbashree. The Government agencies, NGOs, Banks and other public sector undertakings, resort Kudumbashree for outsourcing their business. In solid waste management and several other sectors Kudumbashree has initiated lead role in developing public, private partnership.

Positive and public action

The wide spread coverage of community based organisations of Kudumbashree has reached every nook and corner of the state. Community as a whole extending support to the poverty reduction activities undertaken by Kudumbashree. The presence of Kudumbashree in every sphere of life is visible and it creates enhanced demand for public services, improvement in quality of public service and bottom up pressure for improvement in service


Kudumbashree

delivery. It acts as a delivery mechanism and respond to urgent and imminent needs of the society during epidemics and natural calamities. Every emerging opportunity is grabbed and tamed for the poor.

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