Kerala govt allocates most funds to housing in last phase of extreme poverty eradication drive

The Kerala government has allocated a major portion of funds for the extreme poverty eradication programme in 2025 as gap fund to local bodies for ensuring safe shelter for extremely poor families in need of the same. An amount of ₹52.8 crore out of the ₹60-crore budgetary allocation has been allocated for this purpose.

The poverty eradication programme, which began in 2021 as one of the first Cabinet decisions of the current Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, is now in its last lap. The government is set to make a declaration of Kerala as a State free of extreme poverty in November this year. After ground-level surveys, 64,006 families across the State were identified as extremely poor. Micro plans on the immediate and long-term needs were prepared for each of the families.

The first phase focussed on basic needs such as food and health care. Families who did not have access to these are being ensured uninterrupted food and health care through the joint efforts of the State government and the local bodies. Essential documents were provided to 21,263 individuals lacking them. Out of the 5,350 families who were struggling to earn an income, 4,359 families have been provided assistance to engage in income-generating activities through a Kudumbashree State Mission-led project, local self-government institutions and through other departments.

As some of the short-term needs have been met, a major portion of the funds this year have been set aside for house construction, which is one of the long-term measures. Quite a few extremely poor families have already been provided funds to purchase land as well as to construct houses. Officials have been asked to ensure that duplication of the State share to the same beneficiary under Life Mission is avoided.

Other allocations

The government has set aside ₹2 crore to provide assistance for food and medicine to local bodies with low own income and a large number of extremely poor families. A State-level cell will be set up to monitor the services provided to the extremely poor families in Kerala after the declaration of extreme poverty-free status, for which an allocation of ₹10 lakh has been made.

An allocation of ₹10 lakh has been made to a special care fund for high-end treatment costs of families in need of major treatments, while ₹1 crore has been allocated for land purchase for house construction. Allocations have also been made for awards for local bodies and districts which have implemented the poverty eradication programme most efficiently as well as for conducting social audits and for maintenance of a dashboard for the programme.

Quite a few local bodies have already made the declaration of being free from extreme poverty after carrying out the activities laid out under the individual micro plans.

In April this year, the government declared that a total of 50,401 families (78.74%) of the families identified as extremely poor in the initial survey have moved out of extreme poverty.