Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

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5.1.4 Salient Features
The neighbourhood groups formed at the grassroots level
are providing a social platform for poor women to express
their concerns, discuss their problems, and search for better
opportunities, which they think will improve their own living
conditions. In fact, through this greater interaction among the
poor women, they will be in a position to come forward with
their own micro plans suitable to their own local conditions.
These micro plans formed at the neighbourhood group level
will be integrated at the Area Development Society level
to form a mini plan. Further various mini plans prepared
by the Area Development Societies will be integrated to
form a CDS plan at the local government level. In fact, this
CDS plan becomes the anti poverty sub plan of the village
panchayat or municipality, for which one-third of the total
development resources of the local government is set aside.
Thus according to the Government of Kerala website 'CDS
system has the right of voice, the power of choice and the
entitlement of action that is real empowerment'.
Another noteworthy impact of the programme is the setting
up of women's banking through the development of credit
and thrift societies. As already mentioned, in the weekly
meetings of the neighbourhood groups, the meagre savings
of the poor women are collected and recycled through the
sanction of loans. Thus, this programme enables the poor
women to eke out some saving for a larger benefit. Further,
it increases poor women’s accessibility to small loans,
which is very important for smoothening consumption. The
self-respect, self-reliance and feeling of unity have also gone
up among the poor women of Kerala. In Kerala,
Kudumbashree has collected Rs. 230 crore as deposits and lent
Rs. 320 crore as loans.
The most widely publicised feature of the programme is
the setting up of micro enterprises using local resources as
well as skills. Various commercial as well as co-operative
banks are extending loans to Kudumbashree groups for
starting productive activity. The authorities are arranging
some training programmes for the women for upgrading
their skills as well as for introducing them to new areas
where the local demand is high. Thus, the programme aims
at combining the local demand with local resources as well
as skills to maximise local linkages.
Since economic self-reliance needs skills, resources and
awareness about the market situation, an indirect process
of learning is also taking place through the groups. In
micro groups, women are the decision-makers as well as
beneficiaries, which may help the women to shape their
own destiny or have a say in matters affecting their own
lives. Further, the awareness building regarding education,
health, nutritious food, etc. are also very important for the
overall welfare of the family.
The large collectivity of poor women built up by the
programme has been used by different departments for
implementing different projects or programmes funded
by the State or Central government. CDS’s involvement in
the solid waste management in the urban areas is worth
mentioning, because this has been an unsolved problem
for several years. Further through its networks both vertical
as well as horizontal, Kudumbashree has increased the
social capital of the poor, and this has the potential to boost
the development momentum.
5.1.5 Major Achievements/Limitations
This section tries to document some of the achievements of
Kudumbashree programme in quantitative terms. First, in
Kerala the Kudumbashree programme organised 1,96,000
poor women from 58 Urban Local Governments and
98,119 women from 700 Village Panchayats of the State
into 64,272 (Rural) and 7,848 (Urban) Neighbourhood
Groups. In fact, this organisational base is now working
as a platform for implementing several government
sponsored poverty eradication programmes. Secondly,
the Community Development Society system has already
collected Rs. 64 crore as small savings of which more than
Rs. 50 crore has been disbursed as loan among members for