Kudumbashree
Kudumbashree-State Poverty Alleviation Mission is an innovative system established by the State Department of Local Self-Government in 1998 with the aim of poverty alleviation. This mission, which has taken poverty alleviation as its main task, implements its work program through a community-based organizational system formed under the leadership of local self-government institutions. Kudumbashree's work has been strengthened and expanded and has become a strong organizational system for women to realize the goals of economic-social-women empowerment.
Organizational structure
The basic unit of the organizational system is the neighborhood groups, which consist of 10 to 20 members, each of whom is a woman above the age of 18 from each family in each area. These neighborhood groups are federated as Area Development Societies (ADS) at the ward level and as Community Development Societies (CDS) at the panchayat level. The office bearers of such organizations operating at all three levels are democratically elected women. Members of the local self-government institutions, in their capacity as the patrons of the ADS and the local self-government institution chairman/Kadumbashree CDS. as the chairman of the evaluation committee, lead this community-based organization. More than 43 lakh economically backward families are members of Kudumbashree. Along with the mainstream neighborhood groups, special neighborhood groups have also been formed for families facing physical, mental and intellectual challenges, transgender people and the elderly.
Major projects
Kudumbashree Micro Finance : Neighborhood groups involved in the Kudumbashree organizational system collect deposits and provide them as internal loans to members.
Linkage Banking :- Neighborhood groups are provided with the necessary funds through the bank linkage program to convert small savings into capital investment and encourage them to engage in small enterprises.
Micro Enterprises :- Kudumbashree aims to create opportunities for self-employment for women through micro enterprises. The RME/Yuvashree schemes are in place. Interest subsidy and various other financial assistance are provided to micro enterprises.
Amrutham Food Supplement :- Amrutham Food Supplement is a THRS scheme implemented by the Social Justice Department to address malnutrition and provide additional nutrition to children aged 6 months to 3 years in the state. As part of this, several units consisting of six to 10 entrepreneurs under Kudumbashree are producing fortified Amrutham Nutrimix and distributing it through Anganwadis.
Santhwanam :- Santhwanam is an imaginative project of Kudumbashree in the field of health. The aim of the 'Santhwanam' program is to visit homes and check for diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes that arise as a part of the changing lifestyle.
Harsham :- The Harsham Geriatric Care Project is an innovative project implemented by providing the services of trained executives for elderly care in the healthcare sector. The project envisages the formation of entrepreneurial groups that will provide various services required by the senior generation.
Harithakarma Sena : Harithakarma Sena is a project that implements waste management activities at the local government level through employment initiative groups. This project is being implemented through local government institutions in collaboration with Kudumbashree Mission, Haritha Keralam Mission and Suchitha Mission.
Pratyasha :- Pratyasha is a scheme to start micro-enterprises for marginalized sections of society, such as single mothers, transgenders, mentally challenged children/their mothers, bedridden patients/their guardians, elderly widows, etc.
Arise :- As part of finding ways to provide income to families who have lost their livelihoods due to the floods in the state, Kudumbashree has launched the Arise program to provide free self-employment training in 10 areas: plumbing, electronics repairing, electrical work, agriculture-related work (coconut climbing/forest cutting), laundry & ironing, sales, housekeeping, day-care, housemaid, and data entry.
