Kudumbasree in course correction mode

Govt. initiative follows alleged deviations from the mission’s founding goal of women empowerment

The Thekkethil boat steered by Kudumbashree women in Alappuzha bagged the second place in the Thekkanodi category in the 67th Nehru Trophy Boat Race on Punnamada Lake on August 31, 2019.

A thorough course correction of the Kudumbashree Mission has been envisaged to curb the alleged deviations from its founding goals of women empowerment and check the bureaucratic overreach that is feared to make it redundant.

Reason for the move

The corrective action is being initiated at the behest of Local Self-Governments Minister A.C. Moideen in the wake of reports that certain arms of the mission, instead of complementing local bodies, are treading their own parallel course sans consultations with elected members and working at cross-purposes in certain districts.

The functioning of gender resource centres (GRCs), Jagratha Samithis, has drawn flak since some of them have gone lax and some others totally defunct. The oneupmanship of certain district level officers and their alleged refusal to cooperate with the local bodies to which they are aligned have derailed the functioning of the GRCs. Jagratha Samithis formed to provide a security cover and as a complaint redressal mechanism for women have become defunct for want of support and cooperation, sources say.

Such drifts from the founding principles are feared to debilitate the mission that is deemed as a distinct model in the country.

Though the mission is still being deemed as the sole agency that seriously pursues projects for financial and social empowerment of women, complaints of wanton attempts of certain district-level officials to rebel against the local bodies and conduct themselves in an insensitive manner to gender issues have prompted the government to opt for a comprehensive course correction, sources say.

Goal of intervention

The primary goal of the government intervention is to make the agency more vibrant, socially relevant, and contextual by increasing mass participation in its functioning.

The present bureaucratic system of imposing projects from the top will be substituted with a bottoms-up approach as what has been experimented and proved in the People’s Plan Campaign.

An active involvement of neighbourhood groups will be ensured in project preparation and such projects will be passed on to the higher echelons.

This will yet again revive the groups that have gone into hibernation, it is said.

The government has already given ₹1,400 crore to the 1,70,000 members as relief assistance and that is being cited as its keenness in activating the mission and its arms.

The course correction is expected to revive the verve that waned over the years, sources say.