THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that 30,658 families in the state have been freed from extreme poverty. The announcement came during the opening ceremony of the week-long festival Keraleeyam on Wednesday. According to statistics, there are 64,006 extremely poor families in Kerala.CM announced that more work will be done to help other families come out of extreme poverty in Kerala.CM also envisioned a thought of making Kerala a poverty-free state by 2025.

In May 2021, the state started the Brihad scheme to eradicate extreme poverty. Micro-plans and sub-plans were prepared at the local body level. These families have been lifted out of extreme poverty by providing them with entitlements, health insurance and social security pensions. This is the first time such a project is being implemented in the country.

Minister M B Rajesh handed over the status report of the extremely poor to the Chief Minister at the function. With the successful completion of the first phase of the project, CM lauded Kerala's developmental progress, which he said was a role model for the world.

Minister M. B. Rajesh said that a comprehensive and scientific plan is being implemented in which micro-plans have been prepared separately for each family after identifying the hardship factors such as food, health, livelihood and shelter.

The minister added that the government is making efforts to solve the problem of homelessness in two years and raised hope of wiping out extreme poverty from the state by 2025.