The Kudumbashree has an important role to play in achieving the target of complete eradication of poverty that was announced in the Budget, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
He was interacting with Kudumbashree community development society chairpersons from all districts to receive suggestions about a new Kerala (‘Nava Kerala’) through video conference here on Saturday.
Mr. Vijayan said the government saw the Kudumbashree as a catalyst for building a new Kerala. It had provided strong support to the four missions announced by the government. Hence, it should look beyond the Destitute-free Kerala project and help eradicate absolute poverty.
The Kudumbashree also took the government’s welfare schemes to the people through its 45-lakh members. This in effect meant that Kudumbashree was connected to nearly half the families in the State. Hence, it was uniquely placed to understand the needs and problems of each family.
The Kudumbashree network was also in a position to look into the support and training required by women in each family who could work, but were unemployed. This would help design skill training programme suited to them and achieve the goal of skill development and training for lakhs of women.
The State had faced disasters one after the other in recent years. The Kudumbashree had risen to the challenges posed by them.
Even during the pandemic, the Kudumbashree’s community kitchens and Janakeeya hotels ensured no one went hungry.
Its activities to implement government schemes for the elderly and the differently abled, creation of 40,917 jobs as part of the 100-day programme, work in the areas of waste management, and construction of houses as part of the Life Mission by its construction teams also came in for praise.
The Chief Minister urged them to implement the fish farming project announced in the Budget to increase their income.
The success of the Kudumbashree’s activities was visible in the increase in Budget allocation for it from ₹75 crore in 2015-16 to ₹1,749 in this Budget, the Chief Minister said.
