The local bodies’ election will test not just the skills of those brought up on politics, but also of others, most notably women members of the Kudumbasree movement, who have been trailblazers in the most interesting experiment in poverty eradication and women’s empowerment currently happening in Kerala.
There are over 10,000 women drawn from the Kudumbasree movement trying their luck in the election. In their big and small ways, these women have shown the world their entrepreneurial and managerial skills, which has seen some Rs.1,300 crore in credit being extended to their micro enterprises by banks this year, and the 35,000-odd micro units logging a combined turnover of Rs.300 crore last year.
Travelled a long way
Kudumbasree has come a long way from the days of its inception to claim close to 4.2 million women as its members, most of them hailing from families that have been having a tough time making both ends meet. Entrepreneurship through Self Help Groups (SHGs) has had a two-fold effect: to improve the livelihood options of the rural women and to afford them a space in development. The Kudumbasree women’s empowerment movement has been critiqued from different angles, but there is a broad consensus on the way it has changed the lives of women, in terms of their roles within families and in society.
Kudumbasree’s relevance in the history of entrepreneurship in Kerala is that it has thrown up a new move where women’s collectives could achieve the lonely individual entrepreneur, often facing heavy odds, could seldom achieve.
The women members of the Community Development Societies (CDS) have brought some 51,000 hectares of land under production, of which over 42,000 hectares is leased land. Of the total land area that they have brought under cultivation, 14,564 hectares are being used to cultivate paddy, 10,538 hectares for vegetables, 10,861 hectares for banana, and 7,704 hectares for tubers.
They could produce 46,304 tonnes of paddy, 50,566 tonnes of vegetables, 1,10,052 tonnes of bananas, and 8,838 tonnes of tubers. The industrial production units, so though fewer, have also been doing interesting work.
The dynamics governing the links between the local governments and Kudumbasree units is problematic, given the constant attempts by the political parties to bring their largely patriarchal agenda into play when choosing the leaders and in ‘guiding’ the functioning of these units.
But the women have acquired sufficient negotiation skills to get around many such obstacles, something that should stand them in good stead as they seek to acquire skills to negotiate their way through maze that is local governance.
