HISTORY

The practices of de-centralization of power and people’s campaign for planning, conducted from the middle of 1090s, have opened up avenues for the emancipation and development of women. This has led to possibilities of ensuring the participation of women in the processes of poverty eradication and empowerment. In addition, a significant chunk of the resources, allocated for implementing projects under the People’s Campaign for Planning, has been used for programs for the development of the poor. The state administrators became convinced that if these two streams of possibilities are combined, it will lead to a major socio-economic transformation in the state. The Kudumbasree project was designed to assist the Local Self-Governance Institutions (L.S.G.I.s) to achieve this goal.

Kudumbasree was inaugurated on 17^th May 1998 by the then Prime Minister, Shri. A.B. Vajpayee. The Poverty Eradication Mission, alias Kudumbasree, started functioning from 1 April 1999, with the ambitious declaration that absolute poverty would be wiped out within ten years. In operating the Kudumbasree, the state government adopted an integrated approach of pooling and combining all the poverty eradication concepts and resources. To quote from the official document, “ The development model adopted by Kudumbasree is one that gives primacy to the participatory approach that places the poor at the center of the development process, with focus on women”.

The government has directed that the NHGs (Neighborhood Groups) should function as extension agencies that strengthen the local governance mechanisms as well as the Grama Sabhas. In this perspective it becomes clear that the link/relationship between the Kudumbasree and the L.S.G.I.s is complementary.

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THE STATUS OF KUDUMBASREE AYALKOOTAMS.doc