In a significant achievement, Kottayam has become the first district in Kerala to formulate micro-plans for the extremely poor.
According to Nirmala Jimmy, president, Kottayam district panchayat, micro-plans have been devised for 1,071 families or individuals identified by local self-government bodies. Among the local bodies, Mundakkayam grama panchayat is the first to complete the process.
“The micro-plans have been prepared by first reviewing the information on families obtained from the database of the Local Self-Government department, followed by a direct visit. Workshops have been conducted in grama and block panchayats for devising the micro-plans, which have been evaluated and approved by the district-level coordination committee,” says Ms. Jimmy.
375 projects
As many as 375 projects, including 185 long-term ones, have been undertaken in the district to eradicate extreme poverty. The projects are slated to be implemented within a stipulated time frame.
The short-term projects include provision for nutrition, ration card, employment guarantee card, social security pension, entitlement documents, health-related interventions and palliative-care services. The long-term projects vary from rehabilitation after mental health treatment, provision for housing, skill development trainings, preparation of Kudumbashree's micro-enterprise projects and so on.
National recognition
Kottayam is also the first district in the State to complete the survey to identify the extreme poor and it has received the national award instituted by the Scotch Group for its outstanding work in the process of identifying the extreme poor. The survey has identified 0.22% of the total families as extremely poor on the basis of availability of food, health, income, housing and so on.
Interestingly, a Multidimensional Poverty Index released by the NITI Ayog in November last year showed that Kottayam was the only district in the country without any poor residents.
