At the inception, the activities of Kudumbashree was confined to the Urban areas and Urban and Rural areas of Malappuram District where the anti-poverty programmes have been attempted through community based structures as envisaged in Kudumbashree.  The successful implementation of the project and its positive out come in the limited circles of the state has created confidence in expanding the physical coverage and set new milestones for Kudumbashree by extending its activities to the rural areas.  It was decided to cover the entire rural area of the State in a phased manner and in the first has 261 Grama Panchayats were identified following fixed criteria.    Massive training programme were organised for the Panchayat functionaries, officials and activist in the rural area.

 Unlike the urban programme there is slight variation in the organisation structure and the approach in rural area.  The following are the community structures suggested for the rural side:

 1.      Kudumbashree Ayalkoottam (NHG)

2.      Kudumbashree Ward Samithy (ADS)

3.      Kudumbashree Panchayat Samithy (CDS)

   The paradigm shift in the approach is that any women who is residing in the Grama Panchayat can become a member of the Kudumbashree Ayalkoottam irrespective of the fact that she belong to ‘a BPL Family’.  Since this aspect gives an opening for the APL families to enter into the community structures envisaged by Kudumbashree, it is further ensured that majority of the office bearers should belong to BPL families. These structures give added importance to women empowerment both social and economic