Minister for Local Self Government M.B. Rajesh said here on Friday that the Kudumbashree had been able to reduce poverty among women by ensuring their basic rights including freedom of expression and participation in decision making.
“The Kudumbashree has been active in the field of poverty alleviation over the past 25 years. It has not looked at the issue within the angle of providing necessary requirements but for ensuring basic rights and empowerment,” he said in his keynote address at a workshop on ‘Innovative approaches towards urban poverty alleviation’ organised jointly by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Kudumbashree at Angamaly.
Maintaining that the guiding principle of the programme was to reach out to the community through the wide network of women, Mr. Rajesh said the experience of the Kudumbashree in poverty alleviation over the past 25 years was rich and vast. “The Kudumbashree has played a key role in the development of Kerala by working together with local self-government institutions. We have witnessed the empowerment of women in economic, social and political spheres over the past two-and-a-half decades. The Kudumbashree has ushered in a fundamental transformation of society,” he observed.
On the immense experience gathered during this period by the women network, the Minister said its strong community-based and democratic organisational structure had helped in the successful implementation of the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) programme. The State has bagged the second position in the overall country-wide ranking in terms of the best implementation of NULM for the past two consecutive years, he said.
Rahul Kapoor, Joint Secretary and Mission Director, Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission, said a concerted approach involving government, industry, civil society, and knowledge partners was required to meet the challenges facing NULM.
Sarada Muraleedharan, Additional Chief Secretary, Local Self Government department, spoke on ‘Poverty eradication and women’.
Delegates from various States are attending the two-day workshop.
