ROLE OF KUDUMBASREE IN POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN KERALA.

Poverty is the state of being extremely poor. The poor are exposed to greater personal and environmental health risks, are less well nourished, have less information and are less able to access health care; they thus have a higher risk of illness and disability. Conversely, illness can reduce household savings, lower learning ability, reduce productivity, and lead to a diminished quality of life, thereby perpetuating or even increasing poverty. Kerala is a land of baffling contradictions. Amidst the visible signs of affluence, there is a widening spectrum of poverty and deprivation, a phenomenon that continues to evade focussed attention. Large sections of the people in the State are faced with poverty. But poverty also has several unique dimensions in Kerala because of the peculiar path of socio-economic development of the State. The norms adopted by the Planning Commission to measure poverty, fail to capture these unique dimensions, leading to the gross underestimation of poverty in the State. Among the programmes in Kerala for this purpose, Kudumbashree, literally meaning family prosperity is unique. This paper is an attempt to understand the Kudumbashree programme in its nature and scope and its contribution to women’s welfare in particular and as its spin off as social welfare in general. The paper will place the Kudumbashree programme in the broader context of measures alleviating poverty, improvising financial inclusion and majorly how it empowers women. In the paper, part I will briefly explain about poverty specifically the nature of poverty in Kerala; part II will provide an overview of Kudumbashree from its inception to the present in terms of its stake-holders and their activities; part III will attempt an evaluation of Kudumbashree’s progress in terms of what it has done, what it could not do, and the hurdles it faced towards poverty alleviation; part VI will bring together the highlights of the paper and argue why this programme should not be replicated in other states.