Copyright thehindubusinessline
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday has declared Kerala the first State to eradicate extreme poverty while addressing a special session of the State Assembly here on a Saturday. The announcement came on Kerala Formation Day even as the entire Opposition walked out accusing the Left Front government of perpetrating fraud on the people on an auspicious day with an eye impending elections. The idea is to merely push its interests ahead of upcoming elections to local bodies followed by those to the State Assembly early next year, Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan of the Congress told newspersons. Making a statement on the floor of the House based on Rule 300, the Chief Minister ridiculed the Opposition’s inability to recognise a major achievement of the State. The session was convened to officially declare this to the public at large which the Congress-led Opposition could not digest, which was understandable. The government is separately holding a grand public function in the evening to celebrate the milestone in which actors Mohanlal, Mammoty and Kamal Haasan, among others, are expected to participate. First Cabinet decision The Chief Minister said it was on May 20, 2021, the first cabinet meeting of the re-elected government had, in its first decision, decided to implement Extreme Poverty Eradication Project (EPEP) within five years. It had identified 64,006 families based on four major deprivation criteria – food, health, basic income and shelter They had been left out of various poverty eradication programs previously for various reasons. They were helpless, destitute and hapless who cannot carry life forward without external help. Poverty indices They lived on streets, were broadly differently-abled or elderly people facing physical and mental challenges without sustained income or assets or families; or abandoned by the head of the family and without capacity to work; or families without work-capable family members; or consisting only of bedridden patients. National Multidimensional Poverty Indices based on the headcount ratio had found Kerala as least impoverished State with only 0.71 per cent in 2021 (0.55 per cent in 2023) of the population being multidimensionally poor. Pioneering model Even though Kerala is performing better than all other States in India in terms of average poverty estimates, the State government decided to uplift the extreme poor people, who were a minority in the State. EPEP is a ‘pioneering multidimensional poverty eradication model that combined data-driven targeting; participatory governance; and interdepartmental convergence,’ an offiical spokesman said. It demonstrated measurable success in food, health, income and housing outcomes, a ‘global model in achieving SDGs.’ Second only to China He explained that excluding duplicate entries of 4729, at least 59,286 families out of 64,006 were uplifted from extreme poverty as on October 31, 2025, one year before the promised five years of implementation. EPEP is ‘second only to the massive national-level poverty reduction programs taken up in China.’ Around ₹1,000 crore has been spent for eradicating extreme poverty under food, health, income and shelter components. A mobile app and web portal were integrated for data validation and tracking. Data were collected through pre-enumeration, enumeration and super check. Geotagged data of the beneficiaries were collected, making easy repeated visits to the families multiple times. Monthly monitoring by implementing officers. Published on November 1, 2025
