a better alternative from better   experiences

Kudumbashree is the inevitable offspring of the collective experience derived from the bleak plight of the anti-poverty programmes of the past. When most of the seemingly well conceived anti-poverty programmes of the Central and State Governments failed to bring about the desired result, the natural question sprang up; why? The centrally planned, rigid, individual-oriented poverty eradication programmes of the past didn't give any room at all for the involvement and commitment of the poor and viewed the poor only as resourceless 'receivers of benefits'. Poverty is a multi-faced sorry state of deprivation. Hence by meeting one disadvantage in the lives of the poor, poverty cannot be eradicated or mitigated. Naturally, the un-co-ordinated, income criteria based programmes implemented by different agencies did not come good. Moreover, though the delivery costs of such programmes were exorbitant, they were very much susceptible to under-reporting and manipulations. But in 1993 a beacon light of good hope penetrated the dark and morbid scenario prevailed in Kerala.