Chelannur first to have home shops in all wards

It has not been long since the State Kudumbasree Mission started home shops to promote the products of Kudumbasree units all over the State.

However, it was the Chelannur block panchayat that took the idea to heart and succeeded in setting up home shops in all wards of its six grama panchayats.

The block panchayat took up this mission as per the request of the District Kudumbasree Mission to set a model for others in this regard.

Accordingly, meetings of Kudumbasree members were gathered at ward level and interested members were selected from each Area Development Society (ADS) to set up the home shops.

The selected members are now undergoing training in conducting the home shops.

The units are managed by one trained member who conducts door- to-door marketing of the various products manufactured by the Kudumbasree units.

Products

The products mainly include different types of food products, curry powders, soaps, and detergents, which undergo strict quality checks at every stage of production. The training in production would be given to interested members at a later stage, said C. Vijayan, Block Development Officer.

The block panchayat also plans to set up permanent outlets for the home shops in near future.

“Our future plans include turmeric farming in a whole village while another will have plantain farming”, Mr. Vijayan said.

There were also plans to set up more village markets to sell the agricultural produce of Kudumbasree members, like the one going on at Kakoor grama panchayat on Saturdays, he added.

The block panchayat consists of Kakkodi, Chelannur, Kakoor, Nanmanda, Narikuni, and Thalakulathur grama panchayats that have 112 wards in total.