Kudumbashree is an initiative by the Government of Kerala. It seeks to achieve a breakthrough in poverty reduction through decentralisation of the state government and empowerment of women’s group. This case study review on Kudumbashree program is part of an assignment given to us for the subject Urban Poverty and Exclusion. I would like to apply the learnings of the course to review the performance of Kudumbashree program, critique its shortcomings and provide theoretical recommendations.
Overview
Decentralisation occupied the centre stage of Indian democracy in the last two decades of the twentieth century. The need for greater devolution of powers to the Local Governing Bodies (LGB) and the creation of a third tier in the governance structure for greater participation of people was felt throughout the1980s. Multiple unsuccessful attempts were made to amend the constitution and create a constitutional third tier of local governance in the 1980s. The start of 1990s was marked with the economic reforms followed by the 73rd and the 74th constitutional amendment acts which created constitutional Local Governing Bodies. Thus the country experimented with two major structural reforms; economic and democratic at the same time. Both the reforms are supplementary to each other, thus one’s success and failure depends on other’s success and failure.
Side by side the Government of Kerala was also experimenting with decentralising and economic reforms that would alleviate poverty levels in Kerala. Kudumbashree is the product of long years of such experimenting which started with the sponsorship of UNICEF and the Government of India as Urban Basic Services (UBS) program. The UBS program was based on the fundamental principles of community participation in identifying needs, planning, prioritising, implementing, monitoring and feedback. A three-tier community structure was instituted to enable poor women to participate in planning and implementation.
The success of UBS in creating powerful community based institutions, which would act as a catalyst to people’s participation in multiple welfare programs, encouraged the Government of Kerala to expand this pilot to entire state under the name ‘Kudumbashree’. Kudumbashree-model now acts as the base for multiple poverty alleviation projects across the nation and the consequences of its scaling up to entire nation is a debate that we all must meaningfully understand and engage with.
Salient features of Kudumbashree
- The UBSP program asked local community members in Allepey to develop a nine point risk parameter to identify BPL families. Families with four or more risk factors were classified as Below Poverty line. The same 9 point risk factors were taken up in kudumbashree as well.
1. Kutcha House (Deprivation)
2. No access to safe drinking water (deprivation and exclusion)
3. No access to sanitary latrine (deprivation and exclusion)
4. Illiterate adult
5. Not more than one earning member in the family (vulnerability)
6. Family getting only two meals a day or less (deprivation)
7. Presence of children below age 5
8. Alcoholic or drug addict
9. Scheduled caste or scheduled tribe family (isolation and marginalisation)
Going against the income based poverty level narratives, this nine point risk factors included multiple dimensions of poverty. Since it was developed by poor people through their experience of poverty, it included aspects of deprivation, exclusion, vulnerability, marginalisation and isolation. Such definition of poverty allows intervention at multiple levels. However, in my view the nine point factor missed a crucial dimension of health by not adding the presence of chronically ill person or death of a member below 45 years of age due to a curable disease which shows lack of access to health services. - The three tier structure of UBSP taken up by Kudumbashree:
People’s campaign for decentralised planning in Kerala stimulated the NHG/ADS/CDS structure. Devolution of funds and mobilisation of crucial human resources allowed the Government to create large number of NHGs, ADS and CDS across urban and rural Kerala. This decentralised ground level structure became the service delivery mechanism for numerous government welfare schemes. Since the real beneficiaries of the scheme were involved at all levels from planning to implementation to feedback, it created a social movement where poor people, especially women found more agency and capabilities to improve their living standards. It also created a self-social audit type system where members from the community were the ones who performed majority of welfare work for themselves and their community.
The structure follows the concentric circle power structure where each institution (NHG, ADS, CDS, LGB) is complimentary to other and not in competition. None can subsume other or perform in isolation. A major achievement of adopting such a structure is reduction in dependency on the government and its institutions for everyday life and necessities. - Convergence: Kudumbashree acted as a platform for different line departments and ministries to come together and synergise. Multiple dimensions of poverty and livelihood strategies were addressed and developed through this single platform. Microenterprise supplemented by Thrift and Credit Facility and commercial bank linkages empowered poor women economically and raised their status in the household and society. New microenterprises and jobs offered through various line departments allowed women to add to family income and utilise their labour and agency.
- Since the structure was based on community efforts, poor women in the community were able to build a social fabric of responsibility and care towards each other. Such a relationship allows poor people to move out of isolation and develop themselves socially and culturally.
Kudumbashree for entire nation: is it possible?
Since the success of Kudumbashree in Kerala, several attempts have been made to replicate the model across the nation. The experience of scaling up Kudumbashree to entire Kerala state provides valuable lessons for scaling up to entire nation. Below I have discussed some challenges that scaling up of Kudumbashree program or replication in any other part of the nation would face:
- The nine point risk factor developed in Allepey was carried forward to the entire state during scaling up. This led to intervention mismatch as poverty was experienced in very different ways in different parts of Kerala. Kudumbashree itself explains that poverty is multi-dimensional requiring different definition in different location. Thus the first exercise of BPL identification through parameters defined by community members themselves must not be skipped when scaling up. India is a diverse country and the experience of poverty was different in different places. Thus the usual lazy thinking of one hat fits all approach adopted when scaling up the program would render the program ineffective.
- Kerala is an unique state in India. Political activism of common people, multiple tenures of left party ruled government and a general leftist public discourse, high literacy rates among poor, successful land reforms post independence, strong anti-caste movement and a higher status of women played a major role in setting up kudumbashree. Women forming groups wasn’t strongly resisted in Kerala but the same would not be possible in many other states. High literacy rate made skilling among members easier. However the same task would require more resources and time in other states and communities.
- Political support: Government of Kerala spearheaded the people’s campaign of decentralised planning and provided hand holing support to Kudumbashree at multiple levels, especially on the financial front. The government was not afraid of strong poor people’s association and made themselves a part of such institution building. The same cannot be expected in other state where divisive policies, breaking down of existing poor people’s institutions, a general enmity towards urban poor and a complete lack of willingness among the political and bureaucratic class to actively participate in poverty redressal programs would make Kudumbashree implementation a very difficult task.
- Exclusion of poor male population: Kudumbashree places women at the centre of all activities. It aims to alleviate poverty through women empowerment and women action. But males also face poverty. The economic sphere remains male dominated even among poor communities. Thus leaving males out of important thrift and credit facilities and microenterprise activities under Kudumbashree is giving up on crucial agency already engaged in poverty alleviation. The fear of male dominance leading to women subjugation must be accommodated. Creation of multiple institutions and clear demarcation of roles and activities could be a solution but indigenous innovation must be encouraged.
- Human Resource shortage: Institution building among poor is a painstaking task. Apart from financial contribution it requires skilled human-power that could initiate and support such an effort. Kerala has a long history of people’s movement. The people’s campaign for decentralised planning mobilised crucial human resource at multiple levels which would take up the task of setting up institutions under Kudumbashree. However the availability of dedicated skilled human resource for entire nation in absence of a mass movement for decentralisation is improbable. Lack of human resource would act as a major restraint in the success of Kudumbashree implementation across India.
Conclusion
Kudumbashree is one of the few successful poverty alleviation program that have the scope of replicability. It has the potential to tackle poverty at multiple levels and mobilise millions of poor into collective community action. If implemented properly, Kudumbashree can transform the course of Indian society. The program is not limited to poverty alleviation but touches the social fabric of society and reinvigorates it with collective action. While scaling up of the program to entire nation faces multiple restraints, the need for such a program trumps the restraints. All reforms and social movements require large scale transformation and long term efforts and sacrifices. Such sacrifices are not easy to call upon especially when living conditions of millions of poor is extremely precarious and temporary. Yet I personally believe that when called upon Indian society would create crucial leadership which would take on this gigantic task and redeem millions of poor out of their perpetual misery.
References
- Suneetha KaDiyala, 2004, Scaling Up Kudumbashree- collective action for poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment, IFPRI, food consumption and nutrition division FCNDP 180
- D. Bandyopadhyay: People’s Participation in Planning: Kerala Experiment. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 32, No. 39 (Sep. 27 – Oct. 3, 1997), pp. 2450-2454, Published by: Economic and Political Weekly.
समाज समाचार 