Kudumbasree has emerged as the real winner in the local body elections with 52 per cent of its representatives winning the poll battles across the State.
Of 13,993 members of the women self-help groups (SHGs) who contested this time, 7,376 won, marking the highest ever victory rate for the group. Five years ago, the victory rate was 41 per cent. That time, around 8,000 candidates from the pool contested the election.
The current election season witnessed the SHGs evolving as the short key to success as all political parties picked candidates from the pool. The elected women also include 18 master trainers of the Mission.
It was Palakkad which send the maximum number of SHG candidates as 750 candidates were elected from here followed by Kozhikode (726), Thrissur (725), Malappuram (679), and Ernakulam (614). Eleven representatives of Kudumbasree made it to the Kochi Corporation council. Pathanamthitta district gave least preference to the trained women folk as it elected only 302 members of Kudumbasree.
During the previous election, Kudumbashree members who were holding the posts of chairperson and vice chair persons of the Community Development Society and Area Development Society and the president, vice president, and secretary posts of neighbourhood groups had to resign from these positions to contest the election. However, this year, mission obtained special permission from the Kerala State Election Commission for its members so that only those who were elected had to resign.
The increased acceptance of the Kudumbashree members among all the political parties should be viewed as the political empowerment achieved by the women’s group, said T. Shahul Hameed, State Mission Officer, Kudumbashree Mission.
