Kerala standing proud: 'Extreme poverty free' announcement at event where Kamal Haasan, Mammootty and Mohanlal will be special guests

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala will be declared the country's first extreme poverty-free state today. The announcement will be made by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at a gathering to be held at the Thiruvananthapuram Central Stadium on the 5th. Minister MB Rajesh will preside over the event. Prominent South Indian stars Kamal Haasan, Mammootty and Mohanlal will participate as special guests.

Minister MB Rajesh said in a press conference that Kerala was made free from extreme poverty after a four-year-long process. Eradication of extreme poverty was one of the first major decisions taken in the initial cabinet meetings when the second Pinarayi government came to power. Detailed guidelines were also released.

64,006 families were made free from extreme poverty. The first phase was to identify those who did not receive any benefits from government schemes and welfare programs and did not have any identification documents.

The groups of people who lacked basic necessities such as food, health, clothing, safe shelter, and income were considered.

The Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) trained about four lakh people, including people's representatives in local bodies, social organisation representatives, and Kudumbashree workers.

The process began in June and July 2021. The list was finalized by the local bodies with the approval of the Gram Sabha/Ward Sabha by March 2022. A pilot study was conducted in Anchuthengu panchayats in Thiruvananthapuram, Thirunelly in Wayanad, and Wadakkanchery municipality in Thrissur and procedures were devised.

1,18,309 families in the initial list

1,18,309 families were identified for the primary listing. After detailed verification, multi-level scrutiny, and over 56,000 focus group discussions by expert teams and local committees, the list was narrowed down to 87,158 families. After collecting the information of these families through a mobile app, 20 percent of them were subjected to super-checking by including the Statistics Department. 58,906 focus groups discussed the list. The final list of 64,006 families was prepared by presenting the prepared priority list of 73,747 people in the gram sabhas. The list of 1032 local bodies was published, except Kumarapuram in Alappuzha and Kallar in Kasaragod district. No extremely poor people could be found in these two panchayats.

From House to Organ Transplant

(Assistance provided)

• House for 4677 families
• House and property for 2713 families
• Income for 4394 families. Kudumbashree's Ujjeevanam implemented
• Food for 20,648 people
• Food kits for 18,438 people and food for 2210 people
• Medicine for 85,271 people, palliative care for 5777 people
• Organ transplant surgery for 7 people