The specific objectives are:

1. Identification of the poor families through risk indices based surveys, with the active
participation of the poor and the communities to which they belong.
2. Empowering the poor women to improve the productivity and managerial capabilities of
the community by organizing them into CBOs.
3. Encouraging thrift and investment through credit by developing CDSs to work as
informal bank of the poor.
4. Improving incomes of the poor through improved skills and investment for self
-employment.
5. Ensuring better health and nutrition for all.
6. Ensuring basic amenities like safe drinking water, sanitary latrines improved shelter and
healthy environment.
7. Ensuring a minimum of 5 years of primary education for all children, belonging to risk
families.
8. Enabling the poor to participate in the decentralization process through the CDS, as it is a
subsystem of the local government, under which it works.

To achieve the specific objectives of the Mission, several auxiliary objectives are pursued
methodically

Kudumbashree, which means prosperity of the family, is the name of the women oriented,
community based, State Poverty Eradication Mission of Government of Kerala. Kerala is a tiny
state lying in the south-west part of Indian federation, where many development experiments are
being tested,refined and implemented.

The mission aims at the empowerment of women, through forming self help groups and
encouraging their entrepreneurial or other wide range of activities. The purpose of the mission is
to ensure that the women should no longer remain as passive recipients of public assistance, but
active leaders in women involved development initiatives. Kudumbashree project for poverty
reduction launched on 17 May 1998[1].

Women in Kerala
Kerala is a State with an impressive array of achievements in the field of women development
and the balance of gender status has stabilised in many fronts, the details of which are available
from the government website on Kerala Women

 Kerala has a high female literacy rate of 86.2%, a low IMR of 13 (against the national
average of 80) a favourable sex ratio of 1032 female/1000 male, low MMR 0.8/1000,
High Life Expectancy ratio 74 female/70 male etc., just to mention a few. But in spite of
all these achievements the conspicuous absence of women in the public domain remains
as a paradox of the Kerala model of development.
  The economic marginalisation of women in the development process has drawn
considerable attention during recent years. While the female work participation rate in
India increased from 19.7% to 22.7% between 1981 and 1991, in Kerala the ratio
declined from 16.6% to 15.9% during the same period. The incidence of unemployment
among females in the State is higher than that among males by 5 times in rural areas and
3 times in urban areas. (The unemployment in Kerala is severe and is 3 times larger than
that in India.

 The sexual division of labour has resulted in the concentration of women in low paying
unorganized sectors such as agricultural labour, cottage and traditional industries and
selected service sectors. Despite the powerful trade union movements, equal wages for
equal work still remains a mirage and gender discrimination at the work place is widely
prevalent.
 The marginalisation of women in the economic process and lack of control over
resources have been major impediments in improving the status of women.

 The violence against women and incidence of sexual harassment continue to increase
(number of registered crimes increased from 1862 in 1991 to 4937 in 1996).

 Despite the general progressive political environment in the State, active involvement of
women in various leadership levels are virtually lacking.

The mission
The mission of Kudumbashree is “to eradicate absolute poverty in ten years through concerted
community action under the leadership of local governments, by facilitating organization of the
poor for combining self-help with demand-led convergence of available services and resources to
tackle the multiple dimensions and manifestations of poverty, holistically

History
Kudumbashree was born off of the collective experience gained from the many anti-poverty
programs of the past. Most of the well conceived, centrally planned, rigid, individual-oriented
anti-poverty programs of the Central and State Governments failed to bring about the desired
results, mainly because they didn't allow for the involvement and commitment of the poor and
viewed the poor as "resourceless" receivers of benefits.

Poverty is a multi-faced sorry state of deprivation. Hence by meeting one disadvantage in the
lives of the poor, poverty cannot be eradicated or mitigated. Naturally, the un-co-ordinated,
income criteria based programs implemented by different agencies did not come good.
Moreover, though the delivery costs of such programmes were exorbitant, they were very much
susceptible to under-reporting and manipulations. But in 1992 an innovative program introduced
by the Local Administration Department of the Government of Kerala in Alappuzha
Municipality was a fresh ray of hope. The program created hierarchical community groups of
urban poor women identified through objective parameters and empowered the groups to take up
community based action in various sectors. This was an instant success and was extended to the
other urban areas in the State. In 1994, the Government implemented a very ambitious
replication of the program in the whole of Malappuram District including the rural areas

Informal banking system

The three-tier community based CDS system, envisaged for poverty alleviation in
Kudumbashree approach, will take up the informal banking responsibility also.The poor women
should be able to approach the informal banks whenever necessity occurs. The doors of the
banks should be open for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. The informal banks
are formed with the active involvement of every member belonging to the Self Help Group. An
Informal Bank doesn't need an office building, furniture and other paraphernalia we normally
relate with a formal bank.

The strength of an informal bank is the intimate relationship between the members of the Self
Help Group. The members know each others potentials weaknesses and problems. The members
can deposit even trifle amount in the thrift scheme of the banks. Informal bank always tried to
encourage saving habit among poor women. An informal bank can provide collateral free loans
with the terms and conditions decided by the group. The Self Help Group behind the informal
bank is free to fix market driven rates of interest for advances. Every operation of an informal
bank takes place in the group level, including depositing of thrift amounts and sanctioning of
thrift loans. The groups itself decides the eligibility of a member to get assistance from the bank
after discussions and assessment of the need and repayment capacity.

The very existence of an Informal Bank brings about the homogeneity and affinity among
members of the poor. Thrift savings of the members serve as the main bondage among members.
The bank promote regularity in savings and assures sufficient frequency for group meetings. The
informal banks will instill collective decision-making capability among the poor women. This
sublime quality will be of great assistance to them for their fight against poverty and their
participation in planning process and economic development activities. Informal banks will
slowly do away with the subsidy syndrome prevailing in the lowest stratum of the society. The
poor women will begin to enjoy the unique pleasure of doing things with their own money. The
financial empowerment of women achieved through thrift and bank accessibility will improve
their status in their own families and society. Naturally, their confidence will increase. Above all
Informal Banks provide loans to the poor women at their own doorsteps without any hassle.

Once the informal banks of the NHGs, ADSs and CDS reach a certain level of maturity, they can
grant loans to the members for genuine needs. Poor need financial assistance for several
purposes, falling under four major categories.

[edit] Micro-enterprise development

Kudumbashree views Micro Enterprise development as an important tool for poverty reduction.
When the concept of developing enterprises by poor women was planned in 1999, the response
from various stakeholders including banks was far from encouraging. The previous experience of
failures in group enterprises under various government programmes, perceived lack of
entrepreneual abilities of poor and apathy of banks in associating with ventures of the poor were
the prime reasons for this unfavourable environment.

But the most crucial factor was the lack of any successful enterprises model, which was worth
emulating. The task for Kudumbashree was simple and challenging, to create a model for
enterprise development. Kudumbashree went about creating a model, and the results are for
everyone to see. 18969 enterprises across the state covering urban and rural areas, ranging from
“traditional” enterprises like Goat rearing and Dairy, Catering units, Multi Purpose job clubs,
Health care enterprises, Computer hardware and data entry units, innovative enterprises like
Clean Kerala Business in solid waste collection are a testimony to the resolve of women to
succeed in enterprises.

The definition of Micro Enterprise according to Kudumbashree is that, any enterprise that has:

 Investment ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 2.5 lakhs

 Turnover ranging from over of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakhs.
 Potential to generate a net income of at least Rs 1,500 per member per month.
 Fully owned, managed and operated by members themselves.

There are some common features in the funding of the various enterprise programmes. All
Kudumbashree enterprises are bank linked and a minimum of 50 % of the project cost has to be
through bank loans. The subsidy component is limited to 50% of the total project cost and the
entrepreneurs’ share is to the tune of 5% of the total project cost.

The emphasis in the Kudumbashree enterprise programme was to encourage innovative business
ideas rather than on the “tried and tested” ones. A simple and practical way for identifying
enterprises was devised; any idea that could solve a problem existing in the society (Problem
Solving), fill the gap that existed (Gap Filling) or cater to new opportunity (Emerging
Opportunities) was converted into an enterprise. The fact that most of the entrepreneurs were
first generation entrepreneurs from their families was kept in mind while implementing the RME
programme. The micro enterprise development was seen as an emerging process, which will start
with low capital low risk and low profit in the initial stage that will gain momentum and later
scale up to greater capital, risk and profit

Awards for Kudumbashree

Smt. Sarada Muraleedharan receiving EMPI – Indian Express Indian Innovation Gold
Trophy from Delhi Chief Minister Smt. Sheela Dikshit.
Year Name of Award
1995 ‘We the people’ award – UN
1998 UNCHS –100 Best Innovations
2000 CAPAM – International Innovations Gold Medal
2002 UN Habitat 2002 Practices Global 100 list
2002 Dubai International Award -Finalist
2002 UNDP – One among the 15 best practices in India
2006 India Innovation Award for the Social Innovations

About AMIRTASREE
What began as a response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami has today spread throughout
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Currently there are
more than 6,000 [Statistics as of 2010.] Amrita SREE SHGs. It is MAM’s goal to expand the
program to include 30,000 such groups as rapidly as possible.

Amrita SREE’s second big expansion came in 2007. Just as families solely dependent upon
fishing suffered economically following the tsunami, so too were families solely dependent
upon farming. In places, the financial situation of agricultural families was so dire that
suicide was erupting like an epidemic throughout the community. Between 1998 and 2008,
it is reported that more than 100,000 Indian farmers took their own lives, seeing it as the
only means of escaping debt, crop failure and the rising costs of cultivation. The formation
of Amrita SREE SHGs is helping agricultural families avail themselves to alternative sources
of income and thereby reducing the economic pressure experienced.

Primarily, Amrita SREE focuses on training women. MAM provides vocational and
technical training with the objective of preparing enrollees to engage in an income-
generating activity or to start a business, either as a sole-proprietor or with other Amrita
SREE participants. The majority of Amrita SREE SHGs comprise 10 to 20 participants.
MAM also helps initiate the SHGs’ bank accounts and loans, etc. Once an SHG is
sustainable, MAM helps it transition into a completely autonomous entity. The one lakh
members are now enjoying benefit of an insurance policy too.

Some of the fields in which Amrita SREE has helped create SHGs include: tailoring,
handicrafts, electronic-repair, account systems, beauty-parlor management, feminine-
hygiene products production, paper products, ready-made garments, leather products,
bakery items, hand-looming, coir-making, garment-making, communal farming, food
processing, banana culture and rice-flour production.

ACTIVITIES
 Handicraft making
 TALLY (account system)
 Beauty Parlour Management
 Female hygiene products
 Paper products
 Readymade garments
 Leather product making
 Bakery items
 Mussel Culture
 Aquaculture
 Hand looming
 Coir making
 Garment Making
 Communal Farming
 Food Processing
 Banana Culture
 Rice flour production

Sahayi
Sahayi – Centre for Collective Learning and Action is established and
registered under the Charitable Society’s Registration Act in 1990. It
functions as a regional voluntary development support
organisation. It’s registered and head office is at Trivandrum, Kerala,
India
ORGANISATIONAL GOALS
 To offer adult Education support to various shakeholder group to help
them empower and involve in poverty reduction programmes.
 To promote and strengthen voluntary action and voluntary
organisations as acatalyst to development and governance
 To promote and strengthen panchayat Raj and Nagarapalika
Institutions as true democratic local self Governments.
 To promote and help popularise community based participatory
approaches in disaster management
 To undertake and implement activities such as participatory
research , interfaces, regional/national conferences to influence policy
decisions.
 To help Nurture/promote federations/networks among CBOs/NGOs.
 To help strengthen the capacity of adult educators and other
development actors to use extensively participatory approaches in
learning/training activities and development interventions.
 To offer capacity building support for human resource development
 To ensure accessibility of adult education learning/training materials
to the adult educator in local language through development and
publicaation of such materials

Past and Present Activities

Promotion and strengthening of Local Self-Governance.
 
 Right based interventions like promotion of Right to
Information.
 Strengthening of people’s Assembly - The Grama/ward
sabha.
 Promotion of National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme for enhancing employment to rural people.
 Capacity building support for elected representatives and
other development activists.
 Social and political empowerment through the election
awarness campaign, learning materials support and
information sharing etc.
 Policy advocacy /lobbying through conducting research/
case studies.
Adult Education Interventions for empowerment and poverty Reduction

KISSAN KERALA

The Department of Agriculture in Kerala came into

existence in 1956. It is one of the major development
departments in the State and undertakes formulation and
implementation of various programmes in such areas as 
1. Crop production
2. Infrastructure development
3. Planting material production and distribution
4. Quality control of agricultural inputs
5. Farm mechanization
6. Transfer of Technology
7. Agricultural marketing
8. Crop damage relief
9. Women development

Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS)

The CGHS (Central Government Health Scheme) started in 1954, with its headquarters
at New Delhi. Its main objective is to provide comprehensive medical care to the Central
Government employees that incorporate - both serving and pensioners including their
dependent family members. 

In India, the CGHS (Central Government Health Scheme) provides health care facilities
to beneficiaries that includes All Central Government Servants paid through Civil
Estimates, Ex-Governors and Ex-Vice Presidents, former Prime Ministers, Judges of
Supreme Court and High Courts in India, Members of Parliament and Ex-MPs,
Pensioners drawing pension from Civil Estimates and their family members, Employees
and Pensioners of Autonomous Bodies, Former Judges of Supreme Court and High
Courts in India and Freedom Fighters. Such persons can avail healthcare benefits under
CGHS scheme.

Under CGHS, diversified health services are provided through Allopathic, Indian
(Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani and Siddha) and Homeopathic systems of medicine. The
specialized treatments are provided through various dispensaries/polyclinics across
India. The CMOs (Chief medical officers) and medical officers are in charge of the
dispensaries for the smooth functioning of the healthcare scheme.

The CGHS (Central Government Health Scheme provides comprehensive healthcare

facilities for the Central Govt. employees and pensioners including their dependents
residing in cities incorporated under this healthcare scheme.

This scheme is currently operational in cities viz. Allahabad, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru,

Bhubhaneshwar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Dehradun, Guwahati,
Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jabalpur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Meerut, Mumbai,
Nagpur, Patna, Pune, Ranchi, Shillong and Thiruvananthapuram. 

This scheme provides comprehensive healthcare facilities to the CGHS Beneficiaries in

India. The medical facilities are provided through Wellness Centres (previously referred
to as CGHS Dispensaries) and polyclinics under Allopathic, Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani,
Sidha and Homeopathic systems of medicines. The break-up of CGHS medical or
healthcare facilities across India are enlisted below:
  248 Allopathic dispensaries

 19 polyclinics

 Ayush dispensary/units

 3 Yoga Centres

 65 Laboratories 

 17 Dental Units

The Swashakti Project

 
The Swashakti Project (Rural Women's Development and Empowerment
Project) is a World Bank/IFAD assisted project which is being implemented in
35 districts in the States of Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya
Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh as a centrally sponsored scheme. The
implementing agencies are the women's development corporations of the
above mentioned States.
 
It aims to strengthen the process and create an environment for empowerme
of women through the formation of Self-Help Groups (SHGs). The specific
objectives of the project are
Establishment of between 7400 and 12000 self-reliant women's self help
- groups (SHGs) having 15-20 members each, which will improve the qualit
of their lives, through greater access to, and control over, resources;
Sensitizing and strengthing he institutional capacity of support agencies to
-
pro-actively address women's needs;
Developing linkages between SHGs and lending institutions to ensure
- women's continued access to credit facilities for income generation
activities;
Enhancing women's access to resources to better quality of life, including
-
those for drudgery reduction and time-saving devices
- Increased control of women, particularly poor women, over income and
spending, through their involvement in income generation activities which
will indirectly help in poverty alleviation.