Kudumbasree to take lead in project for the destitute

There is no alternative to Kudumbasree in the State: Minister

Members of the Kudumbasree CDS from Pampadumpara in Idukki in a jubilant mood after they bagged the award for the best CDS, in Kozhikode on Thursday.

The ‘Agathirahitha Keralam’ project to make Kerala free of destitute people will be launched in July and and Kudumbasree Mission will take the lead in implementing it, Minister for Local Self-Government K.T. Jaleel has said. He was here on Wednesday to inaugurate the 20th anniversary celebrations of Kudumbasree.

A community organisation of neighbourhood groups in the State, Kudumbasree was set up in 1998 for empowerment of women and poverty eradication.

Project survey over

A survey for the ‘Agathirahitha Keralam’ project had been completed, the Minister said, claiming that there would be no family without access to food and medicines and no student would be left without study materials once it was implemented. The government would incur 60% of the expenditure through Kudumbasree and the rest would have to be borne by local bodies. As many as 200 new Buds schools would be opened this year and qualified Kudumbasree members would get preference in appointment there, Mr. Jaleel said. The Minister said that the membership of Kudumbasree units would be raised to one crore by involving 43 lakh more educated women from the families of existing members.

Mr. Jaleel said that the government would observe 2018-19 as the year for neighbourhood groups and 5,000 new micro-enterprises would begin in the next one year. Kudumbasree would be strengthened by focussing on coastal areas, tribal communities and farmers, he added. The Minister also launched ‘Harsham – Happiness Redefined’, the mission’s foray into the geriatric sector.

“By now, it has been proved that there is no alternative to Kudumbasree in the State. Another group promoted by vested interests which claimed to outsmart us, has turned out to be a non-entity,” Mr. Jaleel said. Community development societies from Pampadumpara (Idukki), Mararikkulam north (Alappuzha), and Nadathara were honoured for their best performances. As many as 5,000 members, including 1,064 CDS chairpersons, are participating in the two-day conference, which will conclude on Friday.