It was the people’s planning movement in Kerala that laid the ground for the idea of fostering self-supporting women’s groups as a means to eradicate poverty. In 1998, under the E.K. Nayanar-led government, the State Poverty Eradication Mission was launched with the aim of empowering poor women financially and socially. A year later, it was renamed Kudumbashree Mission and began to function under the local self-government department.
But the mission was more than the scaling up of an experiment with thrift and credit societies — small community-based self-help groups of women — in Alappuzha and Malappuram districts. The informal banking system with microfinancing at its core got a fillip with NABARD chipping in with support, paving the way for other financial institutions to follow suit. The three-tier structure with neighbourhood groups called Ayalkoottams having 10 to 20 women from as many families forming the lowest rung and the local body-level community development societies as its top layer gave Kudumbashree some autonomy even as it worked with local bodies.
From a mere credit programme, Kudumbashree became a multifaceted entity with footprints in all spheres of society. It promoted self-employment, entrepreneurship, skilling mainly for the service industry, extended critical gender support and helped mainstream the differently abled and marginalised sections. At least 20 States roped in Kudumbashree to replicate the model of linking community organisations with their local governments.
