M A Baby
ON November 1, 2025, Kerala created history by becoming the only state in India and only the second region in the world, to have eradicated extreme poverty. It was the culmination of an effort that lasted for four-and-a-half years since the LDF government re-elected to office was sworn in on May 21, 2021, as the Extreme Poverty Eradication Programme (EPEP) was announced in its very first cabinet meeting held on the same day.
The survey that was conducted to identify the beneficiaries identified 103,099 persons from 64,006 families in 1,032 Local Self Government Institutions as extremely poor. From this original list, those who died later, those who migrated to other states, those who did not need a micro-plan and those whose names figured twice were removed. The remaining have all been lifted out of extreme poverty by providing documents, land, housing, food, healthcare, skilling, entrepreneurship assistance etc. as required.
However, driven by sheer political narrow mindedness, the opposition in Kerala walked out of the special Assembly session convened to declare Kerala free from extreme poverty. They have raised baseless questions on the methodology used and even suggested that extremely poor people can still be found in Kerala. Some well-meaning individuals and organisations have also been carried away by the opposition’s political posturing. Therefore, it is essential to look into the process that preceded the declaration on the 70th Kerala Piravi Day.
Kerala’s EPEP was spearheaded by its Local Self Government Institutions. There are 941 grama panchayats, 87 municipalities and 6 municipal corporations in Kerala; 1,034 in total. As already mentioned, extremely poor families were identified in 1,032 LSGIs; that is almost a 100%. Of the LSGIs in Kerala, about 41% are governed by the UDF led by INC, which is the opposition to the CPI(M) led LDF in the state. The EPEP was implemented wholeheartedly by UDF run LSGIs too, some of which even invited the LSGD minister, a member of the CPI(M), to declare their respective local bodies extreme poverty free. It is by overlooking their own local bodies’ exemplary performance in eradicating extreme poverty that the opposition in Kerala is voicing unscientific concerns now.
Questions were raised by Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition on the eve of the declaration, despite the EPEP being underway for four-and-a-half years. Not even once in that time, has the LoP or those who have been swayed by his political posturing raised any concerns or made any suggestions regarding the implementation of the EPEP. Documents such as the Interim Report published in 2023 and all the Economic Reviews of the last four years, have painstakingly detailed the progress of the EPEP. Yet, all those who cry foul now never bothered to go over them and give their ten cents worth in the foolproof implementation of the EPEP. Which is why the people of Kerala are doubting the genuineness of their present ‘concerns’.
However, one concern that the general public has, regarding poverty and extreme poverty, needs to be addressed. The poor are those who struggle to meet their daily needs. Their wages barely suffice for basic household expenses, leaving them unable to build or repair a decent home. There are also those who have basic amenities but lack a stable income, making survival itself a challenge. They are poor and poverty alleviation schemes are designed for them. Governments provide housing and livelihood opportunities to them during the Annual Plan formulation phase itself.
There exists another group of people — those who find it impossible even to survive, those unable to work, those capable of working but bound at home caring for bedridden dependents, those too voiceless to convey their needs to others, those unknown even to Grama Sabhas or unable to attend them, and those who, even if selected for benefits, cannot produce the necessary documents to receive them. They are the extremely poor — the people for whom survival is impossible without external help.
The example of one of the beneficiaries of Kerala’s EPEP will illustrate it further. Shivakumar, who had once worked in the Gulf, had taken up newspaper delivery upon returning home. Due to complications from diabetes, parts of his fingers had to be removed. Both his legs also got amputated below the knees, leaving him unable to work. He lived with his tenth-grade son in a single room arranged by a volunteer organisation. Their three daily meals consisted of bread they would buy in the morning.
Shivakumar had an inter-caste marriage, and hence got no support from his relatives. When his wife, suffering from multiple illnesses, could no longer be cared for, he was forced to send her back to her parental home. That is how he ended up alone with his son in that one small room. After school, the boy worked at a flower shop stringing garlands, and from that meager income, they managed to cover food and school expenses.
The micro-plan devised for Shivakumar and his family provided them with land, housing, and financial assistance for treatment and education. The boy passed both tenth and twelfth grades with good results. His mother returned home and received a sewing machine. Thus, Shivakumar’s family walked back from the brink of suicide, to a life of dignity. They are one among the thousands of families in Kerala who got a second chance at life.
Democracy becomes truly meaningful only when a government recognises the existence of such individuals within the society and cares for them. It attains fullness only when it reaches out to the silent, the invisible minority who cannot speak for themselves. Kerala’s LDF government was certainly trying to give voice to the voiceless and make democracy more meaningful, by implementing the EPEP. This is what makes Kerala’s EPEP stand apart!
In a country where structured poverty alleviation programmes have been in place for decades, efforts had to be made by a state government to reach those who had slipped through every administrative microscope — the most helpless individuals overlooked by all existing mechanisms. To do so, the LDF government urged its administrative machinery to go beyond the formal boundaries to find the most marginalised people and fulfill their needs. In the process, a new culture emerged and evolved among the political leadership, civil service, people’s representatives and the public sphere as a whole too.
Wouldn’t extreme poverty resurface again with the passage of time? It very well can, and that is why Kerala’s LDF government has already hinted at an EPEP 2.0, to ensure that a continuous process is in place to monitor and keep extreme poverty at bay for posterity. Both the government and civil society will have to join hands together to make it a reality.
That will also ensure that even the stray cases of poor people featured by some widely circulated newspapers here and there, are taken care of. But no matter what, Kerala’s unparalleled achievement in eradicating extreme poverty – spearheaded by the CPI(M) led LDF government – cannot be downplayed.
