Kudumbashree's Mahila Mall received Best Entrepreneur Award  constituted by Kerala State Women Development Corporation. Smt. K.K Shailaja, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Government of Kerala handed over the award to Smt. Vijaya at the function held at Nishagandhi Auditorium, Thiruvananthapuram on 8 March 2019.

Mahila Mall was launched by Kudumbashree Kozhikode Corporation CDS on 24 November 2018. The Mahilla Mall, run entirely by women is a unique project in the country, which is started by ten women of Unity Group under Kudumbashree Mission in an area of over 36,000 sqft. Mahila Mall, located at Wayanad road near Mavoor Road Junction is claimed to be first of its kind venture in the country. Apart from Kudumbashree workers and groups, women societies and private entrepreneurs had hired space in the mall. 85 percent of the shops are owned by Kudumbashree groups while 15 percent are owned by private women entrepreneurs and other women collectives. Mahila Mallhas 6 floors and out of that the 4th floor is allocated for women related offices and agencies while the rooftop is an open air food court. The Mall is designed for the women and is run by the women. All the shops in the mall have been sold out. The Mahila Mall project is executed with the support of Kozhikode Kudumbashree District Mission and it will also help women entrepreneurs to showcase their output in handicraft, fashion designing travel, tourism etc.

Apart from Kudumbashree workers and groups, women societies and private entrepreneurs had hired space in the mall. The Mahila Mall provides direct employment to 250 women and indirect employment to 500 women. The mall has 79 shops including health clubs, martial arts centres, spa, skill training centres, food courts, textile shops,etc. 

 Mahila Mall  provides an opportunity to small entrepreneurs to promote their business with the concept of Micro Bazar inside the Mahila Mall, which is one of the main attractions of the Kudumbashree Mall. There are a total of 24 micro bazaars which will offer customers home-made items manufactured by Kudumbashree entrepreneurs. The timing of Mahila Mall on week days will be from 10 AM to 10 PM and on weekends, the closing time will be extended till 11 PM. 79 ventures in the mall will be directly run by Kudumbashree entrepreneurs. The mall has 2 lift and the area is under 24 hour CCTV surveillance and good parking facility also provided near to the premise. The Mahila Mall is an icon of women’s empowerment achieved by Kudumbashree Mission.

Three Kudumbashree Micro Entrepreneurs bags Women Entrepreneur Award as part of the 3rd National Rural Entrepreneurs Meet 2019 constituted by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Tuljapur, Maharashtra. The Awards were conferred for Kudumbashree's Santhwanam Elder Care Centre, Thrissur, Kudumbashree Women Food Court, Thrissur and Santhwanam Eco Tourism Centre, Konni, Pathanamthitta. Smt. Sindhu V.T, Smt. Jiji Royson, and Smt. Hena received the awards at the programme held at   Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Tuljapur Campus, Maharashtra on 6 March 2019. 

National Rural Entrepreneurs Meet is considered to be Asia’s First Rural Entrepreneurs Platform.  Women Entrepreneur Award is given to a woman or a group of women running enterprises in rural areas creating livelihood opportunities for others. Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Tuljapur was established with focus of rural development related issues. A master programme was introduced for Social Innovations and Entrepreneurship aiming at giving a complete understanding of the rural setup and enabling them to identify the resources available in villages and to test feasibility of entrepreneurial activities to address social problem through entrepreneurial activities. 

The students of TISS visited as many villages during the past years and during the interactions with the rural people it is observed that some of the forward looking people have started entrepreneurial activities with their limited resources and helping the fellow beings.  It was noticed that there is entrepreneurial aspiration but what lacks is appreciation and guidance in finding the path to bring the ideas to reality. Understanding this situation and addressing this problem a platform is required to inspire, motivate and guide towards their career as there was no specific platform to encourage rural entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial aspirants and students in India. Tata Institute of Social Sciences as a institute addresses community problems with innovative way since its inception, hence an attempt has been made to organize a Rural Entrepreneurs Meet. The Rural Entrepreneurs Meet is organized  with  rural entrepreneurs, rural innovators and students for appreciating existing entrepreneurs in villages,  and creating a platform to inspire rural youth and provide an opportunity to students to express their entrepreneurial aspirations.

Kudumbashree Pathanamthitta District Mission is planning to introduce a mobile application for the better performance of DDU-GKY (Deendayal Upadyay Grameen Kaushal Yojana) registration and for widening the scope of the program. The design part  of the app is completed and will be active soon.

Job seekers can register in the DDUGKY skilling program through this application, in which they must enter the personal details and educational qualifications. This would help the district mission team to consolidate the details and the benefits will reach the right people with effect. Introduction of mobile application will take the DDUGKY program to comparatively more people and would help in the easy process of application. Mobile Application itself will work as  communication tool and with the links itself job seekers can reach the application and people can apply for the training.   All eligible beneficiaries can apply through the mobile application, which will reduce the block of information and reach the candidates smoothly will reduce the middle problems which keeps beneficiary in distance. The course details would  be made  available to them as per their qualifications and availability of course. The training company can accept the request with relation to their capacity. 

Social media coverage is another added advantage. The application with the link could be send to the public. This will also work as a less expense advertisement. The program will be known to public with the help of application.  The Application can be easily referred to the known people as their own. Simply they can send links to the people who need the support. Beneficiaries can apply at any time 24×7 freely. This will be useful for the public as they are not compelled to attend the mobilization meeting. And also the youth can choose the course as per their aspiration and qualification. This will make the program available to all the youth in rural area without any information transfer block. When the interested beneficiary register, notification will be send to the respective companies and the data will be saved with the district mission team. After the training and appointment of the candidate the company will send another notification to distract team. This process of communication will help the documentation process to be carried out effectively.  The app could also generate specific reports for the analysis and it will be helpful for the future planning and development.  Introduction of new application will reduces the drop out rate and can also increase the registration rate.

DDU-GKY, the skill training and placement programme under the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) occupies a unique position amongst the other skill training programmes due to its focus to the poor rural youth and its emphasis on sustainable employment through the prominence and incentives given to post placement tracking, retention and career progression.

Kudumbashree receive Ramoji Film City's CSR fund for constructing 116 houses in Alappuzha. The agreement regarding the same would be signed at the function held at Camelot Convention Centre, Pathirappally, Alappuzha on 1 March 2019.  Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister for Local Self Governments, Government of Kerala inaugurated the function.Dr T.M Thomas Issac, Minister of Finance and Coir, Government of Kerala was also present at the function.

 Ramoji film city, the world’s largest integrated film city and India's only thematic holiday destination had offered Rs 7 crores for building houses for the people in the flood hit areas of Alappuzha.  It is as per the request of Shri. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister, Government of Kerala that Ramoji Film City came forward with the CSR fund for constructing the houses in Alappuzha. As per the agreement, a total of 116 houses would be built in the district. It is planned to finish the construction of houses within 6 months. Construction of each house would cost around Rs 6 lakhs. Kudumbashree had identified the beneficiaries  and forwarded the list to the CSR committee of Ramoji Film City. 

Kudumbashree women construction groups will undertake the construction works of 116 houses. The construction of the houses would be started by the first week of March itself. The project would be implemented in three phases and the construction of 35 houses would be completed in the first phase. 40 and 41 houses would be built in the second and third phase respectively. Kudumbashree Misison had formed 'Nirmashree', a labour contracting society, joining 55 Kudumbashree women construction groups which has more than 250 members. The Nirmashree Labour Contracting Society will undertake the construction of the 116 houses which is proposed to be built in the district. 

Kudumbashree Mission signed MoU with the online shopping site 'Amazon'. The MoU was signed between Shri.S. Harikishore IAS, Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission and Shri. Pranav Bhaasin, Director, Seller & Experiences, Amazon in the presence of Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister for Local Self Governments, Government of Kerala at the function held at Government Guest House, Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram on 27 February 2019. A training programme was also conducted for the micro entrepreneurs regarding the packing, labelling, online marketing laws and GST.

Kudumbashree Mission  had already started displaying the products of Kudumbashree's micro enterprises in Amazon.in and had received its very first order from Himachal Pradesh. The products produced by Kudumbashree women's micro enterprises units are widely accepted among the community because of its ethnicity and purity. As the demand for Kudumbashree products started increasing day by day, Kudumbashree Mission had started finding new marketing platforms for fulfilling real customer's requirements through permanent markets, nano markets, kiosks etc. Kudumbashree Mission had also launched an online portal called www.kudumbashreebazaar.com for marketing the products. In the initial stage of selling Kudumbashree products through 'amazon.in', Kudumbashree Mission is planning to display 100 products from various micro enterprises across the state in trial basis. Kudumbashree Mission have also  started an exclusive office in Thiruvananthapuram for handling amazon order and customer care services.  Convergence with 'amazon.in' is made possible through a project called 'Amazon Saheli' which was developed for promoting India’s rural women micro entrepreneurs. Handicrafts, beauty products, handloom, toiletries, soaps, cleaning substances, ayurvedic products etc are the main categories of products displayed.

Kudumbashree- Kerala State Poverty Eradication Mission bagged three Skoch Order of Merit Awards. The three projects viz.,  convergence initiatives under PMAY (U),  Construction of PMAY (U) houses through women construction groups and  the convergence with Ayyankali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme are the projects selected for the recognition.
The Awards were distributed at a function held at  Constitution Club of India, New Delhi on 25 February 2019.

 Kudumbashree, has been the state level nodal agency for many housing projects for the past 20 years.  Kudumbashree members were given skill training in construction sector and as many PMAY (U) houses were constructed across the state by  Kudumbashree women construction groups. Ayyankali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme (AUEGS) aims at enhancing the livelihood security of people in urban areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage-employment in a financial year to a urban household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work, which also aims to provide a strong, rights-based social safety net for the people in the urban areas of Kerala by giving a fall-back employment source, when other employment alternatives are scarce or inadequate.

'Skoch Award for Housing  2019' is an initiative to recognize and encourage the best work done by government bodies and organisations in providing housing to the country. These awards were a call to state governments, urban bodies, private sector and other service providers to nominate their best work in housing sector across categories such as rural housing, low cost housing, urban housing along with construction and infrastructure among other areas. Skoch award seek to assess and recognize the work done by the best in the business in this sector which will lead to better quality of life for people and better governance in the space resulting in easier access and good quality service delivery. Skoch Order of Merit  constituted by Skoch Group, a think tank dealing with the socio-economic issues with a focus on inclusive growth since 1997. 

Kudumbashree had recently bagged 7 Skoch Awards including Skoch Award for Corporate Excellence (Bronze) or Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDUGKY) and  six Skoch Order of Merit Awards for Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDUGKY), Kudumbashree School Capacity Building programme for 43 lakh Kudumbashree NHG members, Kudumbashree  Facility Management Center, Homeshop, Kudumbashree Women Construction Groups  and Amrutham Nutrimix for qualifying amongst the Top Corporate Excellence Projects in India. 

Kudumbashree will receive Ramoji Film City's CSR fund for constructing 116 houses in Alappuzha. The agreement regarding the same would be signed at the function proposed to be held at Camelot Convention Centre, Pathirappally, Alappuzha on 1 March 2019. Ramoji film city, the world’s largest integrated film city and India's only thematic holiday destination had offered Rs 7 crores for building houses for the people in the flood hit areas of Alappuzha.  It is as per the request of Shri. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister, Government of Kerala that Ramoji Film City came forward with the CSR fund for constructing the houses in Alappuzha.

As per the agreement, a total of 116 houses would be built in the district. It is planned to finish the construction of houses within 6 months. Construction of each house would cost around Rs 6 lakhs. Kudumbashree had identified the beneficiaries  and forwarded the list to the CSR committee of Ramoji Film City. Kudumbashree women construction groups will undertake the construction works of 116 houses. The construction of the houses would be started by the first week of March itself. The project would be implemented in three phases and the construction of 35 houses would be completed in the first phase. 40 and 41 houses would be built in the second and third phase respectively. Kudumbashree Misison had formed 'Nirmashree', a labour contracting society, joining 55 Kudumbashree women construction groups which has more than 250 members. The Nirmashree Labour Contracting Society will undertake the construction of the 116 houses which is proposed to be built in the district.

Kudumbashree, the state level nodal agency for many housing projects for the past 20 years and HUDCO (Housing and Urban Development Corporation), the premier institute in housing sector are partnering together in rebuilding Kerala. Kudumbashree is joining hands with HUDCO for building 36 houses towards the rehabilitation of the flood affected victims. As per the request of Kudumbashree Mission for providing assistance, HUDCO had granted CSR assistance worth Rs 20.02 crores for the construction of 36 houses in Alappuzha and Ernakulam districts. 12 houses each would be constructed in Venmani Grama Panchayath, Chenganoor Grama Panchayath of Alappuzha district and North Paravoor municipality of Ernakulam district. Therefore, Rs 67 lakhs each would be allotted for Venmani Grama Panchayath, Chenganoor Grama Panchayath and North Paravoor municipality for building the houses.

The beneficiaries would be selected by Kudumbashree Mission, in consultation with the District Administration and the District Administration would be selecting the beneficiaries in consultation with the Local Self  Government Institutions. Basic infrastructural facilities  such as electricity, water supply and access would be provided by the concerned Local Self Government Institutions. HUDCO will handover the financial assistance to Kudmbashree  Mission and Kudmbashree Mission will transfer the funds to implementing agencies. The monitoring will be done by the Local Self Government Institutions (LSGIs) and Kudumbashree Mission. The utilization certificates would be furnished by Kudumabashree  Mission after the utilization of each installment of CSR grants released by HUDCO. In Alappuzha, the construction works would be undertaken by Kudumbashree women construction groups and Nirmithi Kendra and in Ernakulam, the construction would be managed by Kudumbashree women construction groups themselves.

Kudumbashree is the State level nodal agency for the implementation of housing schemes implemented by the Union Ministry for the past 20 years viz., Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana, National Slum Development  Programme, Integrated Housing and Slum Development Scheme, Basic Services for the Urban Poor, Rajiv Awas Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

The construction of 20 PMAY houses undertaken by Kudumbashree Construction Groups is progressing at Kollam Corporation. As 50 days passes by since the initiation of the construction, foundation works of 16 houses had been completed. Brick works of 7 houses has been started and the work of 5 houses had reached upto the lintel beam. The  lintel and shade had been concreted for 2 houses and the brickwork above lintel had been completed for one house.

 Kudumbashree Construction Groups of Kollam take up the construction of PMAY houses at Kollam Corporation, by adding yet another feather to their cap. It is as part of rehabilitating the residents at the Alakkukuzhy slum in the cantonment division of Kollam that the houses are being constructed. The houses are being constructed at Mundakkal, Kollam. A total of 20 houses of 500 sqft area will be built in each 3 cents of land.The expenses of the construction would be met from the PMAY fund and the additional amount  from the fund of Kollam Corporation. The contract regarding the same had been signed between Kudumbashree and Kollam Corporation on 17 November 2018. As per the contract, Kollam Corporation handed over the land to Kudumbashree Construction groups on 15 December 2018. The foundation stone of the houses were laid by Adv. V. Rajendra Babu, Mayor, Kollam corporation on 31 December 2018.

Two Kudumbashree construction groups from Kollam Corporation will be in charge of the construction of the houses. In addition, constrcution team members from Sasthamkotta, Shooranad, Kottarakkara and those who got trained through NULM, DDUGKY etc would become part of the programme. It is planned to complete the construction works within 1 year time.

The state level inauguration of Kudumbashree Mission’s ambitious project ‘Destitute-free Kerala’ that aims to protect the destitute population of the state  was held at Kalpetta, Wayand on 21 Febrauary 2019. Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister for Local Self Governments, Government of Kerala inaugurated the project at Kalpetta in Wayanad. Kudumbashree Mission, in association with local bodies, plans to develop the current Ashraya scheme for the implementation of the project. 

The Destitute Free Kerala project will benefit 1.60 lakh people who don’t have anyone to take care for them. Out of this, 10,716 people belong to scheduled castes category. Already 773, out of the 1,034 local bodies in the state have submitted a detailed project report for implementing the project to Kudumbashree Mission.  The scrutinizing of the projects reports is taking place at Kudumbashree Mussion and will get  the clearance soon. The project aims at  the total rehabilitation of the destitute by finding them a source of living and developing their social and economic status. The beneficiaries of Destitute Free Kerala project will be provided food, treatment, clothes, welfare pensions, schooling, land and house. Kudumbashree Mission and local bodies will also provide training to the beneficiaries on several self-employment opportunities. The members of the destitute families are already being given skill training the centrally sponsored programmes  Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDUGKY) and National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM). Those who do not have homes of their own will be included in the LIFE Mission project and will be given houses. The Destitute Free Kerala project thereby aims at making the destitute self sustained. The initial activities of the Destitute Free Kerala was started during 19 October 2017.