New Delhi:
Hailing Kerala's
Kudumbashree mission,that aims at empowerment of women through self-help groups, as "unique", Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that the Government was working to "replicate" the model in other states.
"
Kudumbashree in Kerala is a unique model. There are elements of
Kudumbashree, I think, that can be replicated in other states, particularly in northern India," he said while addressing a seminar.
The Minister said that
Kudumbashree, which brings women to the Grama Sabhas and helps them bring the needs of the poor to the attention of the local governments, "is the only self-help group movement in India, which is fully integrated to the Panchayati Raj."
The programme was launched by the Government of Kerala in 1998 for wiping out absolute poverty from the state through concerted community action under the leadership of local governments.
Mr Ramesh said that a very senior official from Kerala is joining his ministry and one of the task he is being given is to "see how
Kudumbashree movement can be replicated in other parts of the country."
He said 40 per cent of women's self-help group in India are in Andhra Pradesh and they get Rs 6000 crore an year from banks where yearly live-linkage of womens'self-help groups in Kerala is only Rs 1600 crore.
"But difference is that the women's self-help groups in Kerala are fully integrated to the Panchyati Raj system whereas in case of Andhra Pradesh, they are separate," he said.
The programme, which has 37 lakh members and covers more than 50 per cent of the households in Kerala, is built around three critical components-- micro credit, entrepreneurship and empowerment.
Kudumbashree means prosperity (
shree) of family (
Kudumbam).