Kerala declares itself extreme-poverty free, first state in India to do so

Hindustan Times - Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan formally announced in the state assembly on Saturday and that the state has eradicated extreme poverty. The LDF government claims Kerala is the first state in India to do so.

This comes after the state government launched Extreme Poverty Alleviation Project in 2021 and identified 64,006 families as “extremely poor”. These families then became beneficiaries of a four-year-long project with the objective of eliminating extreme poverty in the state.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made the announcement in a special session of the assembly on November 1 on the occasion of anniversary of Kerala’s formation day.

Also read: How Kerala’s plan to eliminate ‘extreme poverty’ changed lives

According to MB Rajesh, the minister for local self-governments, the project came about after a NITI Aayog study found out that Kerala had the lowest poverty rate in India at 0.7%.

Talking about how the feat was achieved, Rajesh said during a press conference on October 22, “We understood that it was important to reach out to this population, however small it is, and meet their needs as part of a dedicated programme. Ground-level surveys were done in the first phase to identify such families based on indicators like access to food, health, housing and livelihood. As part of the surveys, 1,03,099 individuals from 64,006 families were identified as extremely poor,” reported Hindustan Times earlier.

The opposition in the state, Congress-led United Democratic Front, termed the claims made the state government as ‘pure fraud’ and staged a walk out from the assembly, reported news agency PTI.

V D Satheesan, leader of Opposition in the state assembly, said the statement made by the chief minister was “pure fraud” and in “contempt” of House rules.

"So, we cannot join in that and are completely boycotting the session," he said.

Reacting to the opposition's protest, CM Vijayan said that by "fraud", the UDF is referring to its own behaviour.

"We only say what we can implement. We have implemented what we had said. That is our reply to the opposition leader," he said.