Kudumbashree's Art Festival 'Arangu' was kickstarted at Edappal. Dr. K.T Jaleel, Minister, Local Self Government Department, Government of Kerala inaugurated the festival at Edappal on 4 May 2018. The Art festival is organised by Kudumbashree Mission in association with Local Self Government Department. More than 2000 Kudumbashree women took part in the procession organised prior to the inaugural function. Traditional Art forms like Theyyam, Thira, Karinkali, Oppana, Kaikottikali, etc were presented at the procession.

The three day Art Festival will take place at the 5 venues named Nila, Pamba, Mayyazhi, Kabani and Chaliyar. 1500 women from 14 districts across the state will take part in 26 items. The competitions are arranged in in sections- junior and senior. Those within the age limit 15-35 would be considered as junior and those above 35 years would be considered as Senior.

Group song, Shinkari Melam, Recitation,Mappilappaat, Light Music, Fancy Dress, Pencil Drawing, Water colour, story writing, poem writing, violin,monoact etc are the competitions in which the women are competing with each other.

The Art Festival is being an opportunity for the women to present their artistic talents before the society. Shri. E.TMuhamed Basheer, Shri. V. Abdurahman MLA, Smt. Pushpaja, Member, Kudumbashree Governing Body and other dignitaries also attended the function. Smt. C.K Hemalatha, District Mission Coordinator, Kudumbashree Malappuram District Mission welcomed the gathering and Shri. K.M Vinod, Assistant District Mission Coordinator, Kudumbashree Malappuram District Mission extended vote of Thanks.

The story of Thripthi Shetty can be depicted as the best example in describing how Kudumbashree Mission has touched the lives of the weaker and marginalized sections in the society. Thripthi Shetty is a transgender, hailing from Manjeshwaram of Kasargod district, who had faced many difficulties in undertaking different jobs for livelihood. She received a dignified life after becoming the part of the special NHG under Kochi East CDS.

As part of inclusion of the marginalized and weaker sections, Kudumbashree Mission gave special focus on transgenders and this helped Kochi East CDS to form special NHGs for transgender. Thripthi became a member of this NHG. The general awareness workshops on the National Urban Livelihoods Mission scheme motivated her to start a designer jewellery shop. But working capital and loan availability etc was a big concern and she approached the City Mission Management Unit (CMMU) to understand the various steps to establish an enterprise. The banks were reluctant to provide loan, even though she had an Aadhar card and a training certificate. The bank insisted for additional ID proof. The constant efforts of the Mission unit motivated State Bank of India to sanction loan based on the task force recommendation. As a result, she received loan for an amount of Rs 1 lakh after two months of submission of the application. Later, Thripthi procured the materials for designer jewellery from various states and made different variety ornaments. Initially her marketing was centered on Kudumbashree fests.

Now Thripthi Shetty has developed an online portal ‘Thripthi Handicrafts and Fashion’ (www.thripthi.in) and is engaged in e-marketing as well. If right intervention is made at the right time, many people like Thripthi can be supported and saved. Her story can be considered as the is the best epitome for Kudumbashree Mission's interventions.

For the first time in India, an Urban Local Body launched 3 innovative enterprises marking the May Day observance. It was Paravoor Municipality of Ernakulam district of Kerala, that launched 3 innovative enterprises.The Mother's Kitchen Unit, House Keeping Unit and the Urban Service Team are the three innovative enterprises launched by the Paravoor Municipality. The 3 enterprises started working on the May Day itself. The teams are set up with the help of the centrally designed programme National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM). Shri. Ramesh D. Kurup, Chairman, North Paravoor Municipality inaugurated the three enterprises at Paravoor Municipality premises on 1 May 2018.

The first in the row, Vinayaka Mother's Kitchen team would deliver home made food on call. Whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner, the Mother's Kitchen team would deliver it in no time. Smt. Geetha Parameswaran, Smt. Sindhu Sunil Kumar, Smt. Vimala Appu, Smt. Sasikala Subhanayakan and Smt. Jaya Narayanan are the women behind Vinayaka Mother's Kitchen. Whereas, Sadgamaya House Keeping Unit would undertake all the cleaning works of houses, institutions, auditoriums etc. Smt. Praseetha, Smt. Deepa, Smt. Aneesha, Smt.Rajani and Smt. Habsath are the members of the Sadgamaya House Keeping Unit. Paravoor Urban Service team is set up to do the electrical, plumbing, masonry, painting and gardening works in households. Shri. Babu, Shri. Bijoy, Shri. Baiju, Shri. Sudheesh and Shri. David are the members of the Urban Service Team.

The teams would be working based on Paravoor Municipal office. the Urban Local Body had already published the contact numbers the member of these three innovative enterprises. By launching three innovative enterprises, Paravoor ULB has managed to make their mark.

Kudumbashree Mission is about  to launch Common Facility Centres across the State, where a consortium of Kudumbshree Entrepreneurs come together to make same kind of products. As part of this, 19  Common Facility Centres would be started in 12 districts in Kerala very soon. It is envisioned to form a consortium of enterprises by clustering them in the basis of the kind of the products they make. Mainly the production of apparels, food products and cement brick sectors are aimed at by launching the Common Facility Centres. The  Common Facility Centres would act as a working area where the entrepreneurs from an area could make their products, pack it and ensure its quality. Kudumbashree aims to identify all enterprises in the district level working in similar way and to start  Common Facility Centres ensuring them enough support they need. 4525 Kudumbashree women would be benefited out of thelaunch of  Common Facility Centres.

It would then be possible to produce branded products from a particular locality itself, if the entrepreneurs from that particular locale would be able to produce huge quantity of products. Those entrepreneurs who can't afford buying machinery may make use of the  Common Facility Centres. The production cost could be minimized as the raw materials are procured together by the  Common Facility Centres. The Product Testing facility would also be arranged at the  Common Facility Centres. By ensuring the service and supervision  of  the professionals in this sector, this initiative could secure better marketing of Kudumbashree Products. Common Protocol would be ensured in the sales of the product.  The respective District Mission Coordinators would be in charge of the  Common Facility Centres.

The respective Local Self Government Institutions would arrange the infrastructure for starting the  Common Facility Centres. Kudumbashree Mission would spent around Rs 50 lakh for launching  Common Facility Centres. The 60 % of the amount would be used for buying machinery, 15 % for building renovation and, another 15 % would be use for conducting training programmes and 10 % would be used for designing, packing and better marketing.

Kudumbashree Mission is venturing into Geriatric care envisioning to provide special care for the lonely old age people. The project 'Harsham-Happiness Redefined', would ensure care for the old aged people. The aim of the programme is to form groups of around 100 volunteers in each district to help aged people who live alone or under adverse circumstances with least support, including those who are bedridden. The skill training for the geriatric care executives was inaugurated at Kozhikode on 30 April 2018.

The Harsham programme will be implemented with financial assistance from the Kerala Academy for Skill Excellence, plans to provide jobs for around 1,000 women under Kudumbashree Mission this year. The programme will be implemented with the support of HAP (Health Action by People), an NGO and the Hindustan Latex Family Planning and Promotion Council (HLFPPT). The training programme will be extended to other districts in the near future.
The working of the programme would be in the model of Micro enterprises. Those aged below 55 years, with good physical capabilities and an aptitude for serving the society would be considered for the programme. The respective District Mission Co-ordinators would select the Geriatric Care executives in the districts.Training for them will be provided to the selected Geriatric care executives in two 30-member batches.The beneficiaries may avail the services of the Harsham Programme through call centres or online round the clock. The volunteers will collect the details of the people who have requested for services or care will later impart the services. The help of CDS-ADS members would be made used to gather information about the callers .

As part of the state government's welfare programmes, the local bodies have already initiated a palliative care project aiming to turn Kerala into an elderly-friendly state. Many aged people, those who are bedridden, have been receiving care under the project. But shortage of volunteers and employees is still a major hurdle, and many needy people have been denied care in time. The Harsham Programme will be a solution for that issue.

Kudumbashree bagged the national award for the successful implementation of DDU-GKY programme in Kerala for the second time in a row. This time Kudumbashree bagged the award by being the second best state nodal agency for implementing DDUGKY programme during 2017-18.This is for the second time that Kudumbashree is bagging the award. Last year also Kudumbashree had received the award for being the third best state nodal agency implementing the programme in the state. 9196 out of the 10663 trained youth had secured job placements during 2017-18.

The Award including the certificate and momento will be given away at the programme which would be held at Ranchi, Jharkhand on 5 May 2018. The two stage process was employed by the Award committee for ranking the states based on their performances during last year. Score for achieving training target for the last financial year, score for achieving placement target for the last financial year, score for assessed against trained, score for certified against assessed, score for fund installments, score for training centre capacity utilization, score for inspections done, score for utilization of funds, score for engagement of Technical Support Agency, HR score, usage of MIS, score for timely commencement (PAC to MoU), score for timely commencement ( MoU to fund release),score for sanction ( EC approved against sanctioned), State's contribution to National Performance ( Training), State's contribution to National Performance ( Placement), Initiatives or Best Practices etc were the parameters considers for screening the applications etc were considered in the first stage and in the second stage, the presentation on the implementation of programme was done by the states. It was based on the scores attained by the states in two stages the awards were decided.

As of now, Kudumbashree SRLM has 52 PIAs and 83 projects in hand. Kudumbashree had devised various field level and policy level innovations for the successful implementation of the programme in the state. DDUGKY, the skill training and placement programme under the Ministry of Rural Development ( MoRD) occupies a unique position amongst the other skill training programmes due to its focus to the poor rural youth and its emphasis on sustainable employment through the prominence and incentives given to post placement tracking, retention and career progression. Kudumbashree SRLM plans to give skill training to 30,000 rural youth this year.

Kudumbashree women from Kasaragod organised a get together of unwed age over bachelors in their locality. The get together was organised by the Kudumbashree Women of Madikai Panchayath of Kasaragod District. The women took the whole initiative to organise the get together. It was with the focus of discussing such a social issue that the get together was organised. The get together was indeed a new experience for the unwed age over bachelors. It was suggested that the concept of women about the marriages had changed and it is the reflection of the empowerment that women had attained in this patriarchal society.The Kudumbashree women from Madikai Panchayath had succeeded in attempting to address the various social changes happening in and around their society.

The DDUGKY migration support centre and call centre started at Vytilla, Kochi, the commercial capital of Kerala is being a boon to many. It’s walk-in resource centre opened for the successful trainees of DDU-GKY, who are displaced from their native places in search of better employment prospects. Kudumbashree Mission has been working to reduce the vagaries associated with migration of the DDU-GKY youth in three ways by offering them suitable training opportunities, helping them prepare for employment away from home and by providing counseling and support services for a reasonable period of time which would enable them to adapt to a foreign environment. Migration Support Centres (MSCs) established at Kochi is a further step in this direction.

Migration Support Centre offers counseling, access to information, acclimatization support and targeted services to displaced workers. It’s services also include pre-migration preparatory support for both domestic and abroad placed candidates, post-placement counseling, registering migrant workers and undertaking periodic counseling, facilitate accommodation, undertaking qualitative research amongst candidates and employers as follow-up to post placement tracking, job retention and career progression counseling, facilitation for securing utility services, provide inter-department or inter-institution liaison support, providing support to workers in case of exigencies and work disputes etc.

A call centre is also set up for the DDU-GKY candidates within Migration Support Centre which will help in resolving the grievances of candidates and act as an important source of information for candidates, and would also act as Public Grievance Redressal system. The job portal would enable the employer to select the appropriate aspirant from a pool of trained candidates from training centres across the state. The employees would also get the information on the current openings as well. The monitoring of the same would be done by the Kudumbashree SRLM. The software will have provision to update the data of the 20,000 candidates of DDU-GKY who had received job placements till now, which will help in tracking the candidates. The Migration Support Centre was started in Kochi itself as most of the students find job opportunities in Kochi.

The Attappady Skill Training Programme being implemented at the tribal settlements of Attappady of Palakkad District make significant achievement.The job training of 159 tribal youth had been completed and out of them 111 students got job placements.

The tribal students from Attappady Tribal Settlement had been depending upon the training centres at Palakkad and other neighboring districts which had eventually lead to higher drop out, as the Attappady tribal youth didn’t prefer to stay away from their native place. As a solution to eliminate the dropouts, Kudumbashree Mission launched the training centre at Attappady, the only tribal intensive block in Kerala.

SB Global, the Project Implementing Agency of Kudumbashree Mission started their training centre in Attappady and offered courses such as Domestic Electrician, Welding and Plumbing. Handholding was done by the Kudumbashree SRLM by extending assistance to temporarily set up the training centre in a governmental building at Attappady. As training centre was opened in Attappady, the rural youth began showing interest towards the skill traing programme of DDU-GKY and the dropout rate was lowered. As of now, 111 out if the 159 trained youth had secured got job placements.

The project for issuing Houses for all those who have land in urban areas of Kerala gets Central Sanction. The houses would be built under PMAY(U) as part of LIFE programme. As per this 82487 beneficiaries in the state would get the advantage of the programme. The programme is implemented by PMAY(U) - Pradhan Manthri Awas Yojana (Urban) Programme under Central- State Ministries working with the mission of achieving 'Housing for All'.

Central Sanction has been received for the project worth Rs 203 crore for building 5073 houses in 32 ULBs of Kerala as part of PMAY-LIFE Programme. The Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee held on 26 March 2018 gave approval for the same. Therefore those who have land in the 93 ULBs would get houses of their own. In total, approval for the houses of 82487 had been received. Construction of 2023 houses had been completed and construction of 23,891 houses are in progress.

Government had issued the order for increasing the financial support for building houses for the homeless who have land in urban areas to Rs 4 lakhs as per the unit rate of LIFE programme. As per this, those beneficiaries who had made the contract after 1 April 2017 in connection with the programme would also get the advantages. Out of the 4 lakhs rupees offered one and half lakh rupees will be met from the Central Government fund. The remaining Rs 50,000 would be met from the State Government and Rs 2 lakhs would be Local bodies fund. It is notable that the beneficiaries need not to pay the beneficiary share.

Kudumbashree Mission is the nodal agency of PMAY-LIFE programme in Kerala. The programme is framed, including the factors such as Colony development, credit linked subsidy, affordable housing scheme and personal Construction.