Kudumbashree Mission is venturing into Geriatric care envisioning to provide special care for the lonely old age people. The project 'Harsham-Happiness Redefined', would ensure care for the old aged people. The aim of the programme is to form groups of around 100 volunteers in each district to help aged people who live alone or under adverse circumstances with least support, including those who are bedridden. The skill training for the geriatric care executives was inaugurated at Kozhikode on 30 April 2018.

The Harsham programme will be implemented with financial assistance from the Kerala Academy for Skill Excellence, plans to provide jobs for around 1,000 women under Kudumbashree Mission this year. The programme will be implemented with the support of HAP (Health Action by People), an NGO and the Hindustan Latex Family Planning and Promotion Council (HLFPPT). The training programme will be extended to other districts in the near future.
The working of the programme would be in the model of Micro enterprises. Those aged below 55 years, with good physical capabilities and an aptitude for serving the society would be considered for the programme. The respective District Mission Co-ordinators would select the Geriatric Care executives in the districts.Training for them will be provided to the selected Geriatric care executives in two 30-member batches.The beneficiaries may avail the services of the Harsham Programme through call centres or online round the clock. The volunteers will collect the details of the people who have requested for services or care will later impart the services. The help of CDS-ADS members would be made used to gather information about the callers .

As part of the state government's welfare programmes, the local bodies have already initiated a palliative care project aiming to turn Kerala into an elderly-friendly state. Many aged people, those who are bedridden, have been receiving care under the project. But shortage of volunteers and employees is still a major hurdle, and many needy people have been denied care in time. The Harsham Programme will be a solution for that issue.

Kudumbashree bagged the national award for the successful implementation of DDU-GKY programme in Kerala for the second time in a row. This time Kudumbashree bagged the award by being the second best state nodal agency for implementing DDUGKY programme during 2017-18.This is for the second time that Kudumbashree is bagging the award. Last year also Kudumbashree had received the award for being the third best state nodal agency implementing the programme in the state. 9196 out of the 10663 trained youth had secured job placements during 2017-18.

The Award including the certificate and momento will be given away at the programme which would be held at Ranchi, Jharkhand on 5 May 2018. The two stage process was employed by the Award committee for ranking the states based on their performances during last year. Score for achieving training target for the last financial year, score for achieving placement target for the last financial year, score for assessed against trained, score for certified against assessed, score for fund installments, score for training centre capacity utilization, score for inspections done, score for utilization of funds, score for engagement of Technical Support Agency, HR score, usage of MIS, score for timely commencement (PAC to MoU), score for timely commencement ( MoU to fund release),score for sanction ( EC approved against sanctioned), State's contribution to National Performance ( Training), State's contribution to National Performance ( Placement), Initiatives or Best Practices etc were the parameters considers for screening the applications etc were considered in the first stage and in the second stage, the presentation on the implementation of programme was done by the states. It was based on the scores attained by the states in two stages the awards were decided.

As of now, Kudumbashree SRLM has 52 PIAs and 83 projects in hand. Kudumbashree had devised various field level and policy level innovations for the successful implementation of the programme in the state. DDUGKY, 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 SRLM plans to give skill training to 30,000 rural youth this year.

Kudumbashree women from Kasaragod organised a get together of unwed age over bachelors in their locality. The get together was organised by the Kudumbashree Women of Madikai Panchayath of Kasaragod District. The women took the whole initiative to organise the get together. It was with the focus of discussing such a social issue that the get together was organised. The get together was indeed a new experience for the unwed age over bachelors. It was suggested that the concept of women about the marriages had changed and it is the reflection of the empowerment that women had attained in this patriarchal society.The Kudumbashree women from Madikai Panchayath had succeeded in attempting to address the various social changes happening in and around their society.

The DDUGKY migration support centre and call centre started at Vytilla, Kochi, the commercial capital of Kerala is being a boon to many. It’s walk-in resource centre opened for the successful trainees of DDU-GKY, who are displaced from their native places in search of better employment prospects. Kudumbashree Mission has been working to reduce the vagaries associated with migration of the DDU-GKY youth in three ways by offering them suitable training opportunities, helping them prepare for employment away from home and by providing counseling and support services for a reasonable period of time which would enable them to adapt to a foreign environment. Migration Support Centres (MSCs) established at Kochi is a further step in this direction.

Migration Support Centre offers counseling, access to information, acclimatization support and targeted services to displaced workers. It’s services also include pre-migration preparatory support for both domestic and abroad placed candidates, post-placement counseling, registering migrant workers and undertaking periodic counseling, facilitate accommodation, undertaking qualitative research amongst candidates and employers as follow-up to post placement tracking, job retention and career progression counseling, facilitation for securing utility services, provide inter-department or inter-institution liaison support, providing support to workers in case of exigencies and work disputes etc.

A call centre is also set up for the DDU-GKY candidates within Migration Support Centre which will help in resolving the grievances of candidates and act as an important source of information for candidates, and would also act as Public Grievance Redressal system. The job portal would enable the employer to select the appropriate aspirant from a pool of trained candidates from training centres across the state. The employees would also get the information on the current openings as well. The monitoring of the same would be done by the Kudumbashree SRLM. The software will have provision to update the data of the 20,000 candidates of DDU-GKY who had received job placements till now, which will help in tracking the candidates. The Migration Support Centre was started in Kochi itself as most of the students find job opportunities in Kochi.

The Attappady Skill Training Programme being implemented at the tribal settlements of Attappady of Palakkad District make significant achievement.The job training of 159 tribal youth had been completed and out of them 111 students got job placements.

The tribal students from Attappady Tribal Settlement had been depending upon the training centres at Palakkad and other neighboring districts which had eventually lead to higher drop out, as the Attappady tribal youth didn’t prefer to stay away from their native place. As a solution to eliminate the dropouts, Kudumbashree Mission launched the training centre at Attappady, the only tribal intensive block in Kerala.

SB Global, the Project Implementing Agency of Kudumbashree Mission started their training centre in Attappady and offered courses such as Domestic Electrician, Welding and Plumbing. Handholding was done by the Kudumbashree SRLM by extending assistance to temporarily set up the training centre in a governmental building at Attappady. As training centre was opened in Attappady, the rural youth began showing interest towards the skill traing programme of DDU-GKY and the dropout rate was lowered. As of now, 111 out if the 159 trained youth had secured got job placements.

The project for issuing Houses for all those who have land in urban areas of Kerala gets Central Sanction. The houses would be built under PMAY(U) as part of LIFE programme. As per this 82487 beneficiaries in the state would get the advantage of the programme. The programme is implemented by PMAY(U) - Pradhan Manthri Awas Yojana (Urban) Programme under Central- State Ministries working with the mission of achieving 'Housing for All'.

Central Sanction has been received for the project worth Rs 203 crore for building 5073 houses in 32 ULBs of Kerala as part of PMAY-LIFE Programme. The Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee held on 26 March 2018 gave approval for the same. Therefore those who have land in the 93 ULBs would get houses of their own. In total, approval for the houses of 82487 had been received. Construction of 2023 houses had been completed and construction of 23,891 houses are in progress.

Government had issued the order for increasing the financial support for building houses for the homeless who have land in urban areas to Rs 4 lakhs as per the unit rate of LIFE programme. As per this, those beneficiaries who had made the contract after 1 April 2017 in connection with the programme would also get the advantages. Out of the 4 lakhs rupees offered one and half lakh rupees will be met from the Central Government fund. The remaining Rs 50,000 would be met from the State Government and Rs 2 lakhs would be Local bodies fund. It is notable that the beneficiaries need not to pay the beneficiary share.

Kudumbashree Mission is the nodal agency of PMAY-LIFE programme in Kerala. The programme is framed, including the factors such as Colony development, credit linked subsidy, affordable housing scheme and personal Construction.

To meet the various needs of the people residing in the urban areas, Urban Service Team of Kudumbashree Mission started working in Thiruvananthapuram. The Urban Service Team is formed under Kudumbashree District Mission of Thiruvananthapuram as part of the centrally designed programme NULM. The Urban Service Team would be working based at the City Livelihood Centre located at Muttada, Thiruvananthapuram. The persons having skills in various sectors are brought under a single umbrella where their services can be availed through on call. People having specific skills or qualifications in these sectors are formed as a group enterprise.

The services extended by the Urban Service Team includes house keeping, masonry, plumbing, electrician, tiles worker, gardening, AC mechanic, mobile servicing, baby sitting, CCTV, beautician etc. The Kudumbashree Urban Service Team consists of 30 members. Uniform and ID card has been distributed to all members of the team. It was hard to find the suitable workers for doing such jobs and it was as a solution to such problems that the urban service team was launched to provide various services to the people residing in the urban areas. Those who are in need of the services of the Urban Service Team may contact the number 7012389423 for availing their services.

Skill Training has been extended to 140 members under the NULM scheme and the Urban Service Team was formed including 30 members among them. Considering the increasing needs of the urban residents, service of 5 to 10 members are ensured under each sector.

Medical Kits and uniforms were distributed to the newly joined entrepreneurs of Santhwanam programme during the one day workshop organised at Maria Rani Convention Centre, Thiruvananthapuram on 20 April 2018. The Medical kit and uniforms were distributed by Shri. S. Harikishore, Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission. Dr. Vijayakumar, Secretary, Health Action by People (HAP) presided over the function.

The uniform and Medical kit including BP apparatus, Cholesterol meter, body fat monitor, sugar meter etc were given away to 10 participants among the 60 women who had received training from Health Action by People (HAP). The Santhwanam team provide door to door diagnostic services to the needy patients who cannot regularly visit clinics of pathological laboratories. The services offered by the entrepreneurs include a one-time screening of individuals at their homes and follow up check-ups. The screening tests include measurements or estimation of height, body weight, body mass index, body fat, blood pressure, and blood glucose.

About 300 Santhwanam units are working across the state. Kudumbashree Mission. Training of 60 women had been completed. The bank loan to buy medical equipments and two wheelers will be issued to the interested entrepreneurs. Dr. Vijayakumar, Secretary, Health Action by People (HAP), Dr. Sanjay Nair, Assistant Professor,Pulmonary Medicine and Joint Secretary, Health Action by People (HAP), Shri. N. Jajajeevan, State Co-ordinator, Haritha Mission answered the questions of the entrepreneurs. Shri. Gopakumar. K, Senior Project Officer, Santhwanam and Smt. Akhila, State Assistant Programme Manager, Kudumbashree lead the workshop. Smt. Niranjana, Programme Officer, Kudumbashree Mission extended Vote of Thanks.

Kudumbashree Mission will give skill training to the coastal youth of the state through Kudumbashree- Sagarmala programme. The training would be extended through the centrally designed skill training programme, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) being implemented in the state through Kudumbashree Mission. The programme would be piloted among the coastal youth of Ernakulam and Kozhikode districts who would be the beneficiaries of the programme. Kudumbashree plans to give skill training to 3000 students in the coming 3 years. The convergence Project is a collaborative effort by Ministry of Shipping (MoS) and Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), which aims at skilling the coastal communities for wage employment in port and maritime sector. Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has assigned Kudumbashree Mission as the Nodal agency for the implementation of Sagarmala Project in Kerala.

The courses would be of 3 months to 1 year duration. In the first phase, skill training would be extended in the job sectors like, life guards, fish and sea food processing, deep sea fishing, crane operating, electric arc welding etc. By extending skill training and ensuring the placement through this programme, the life style of the rural youth would be improved. The empanelling process of the Project Implementing Agencies are progressing.Once the detailed analysis of the agencies would be over, the project report would be submitted for the approval of the committee. On getting the approval, the training programme would be started in 45 days time. The beneficiaries of the programme would be identified through District Mission Co-ordinators, Block Co-ordinators, Community Resource Persons, CDS, ADS members etc.

The State Rural Livelihood Mission team from Haryana visited Ernakulam to study about Kudumbashree Mission. The team visited the Pallipuram Panchayth of Ernakulam to study about the same. The main aim of the visit was to study about the activities being implemented by Kudumbashree. The team also aimed to study the activities of the Local Self Government Department Institutions. It is also planned to replicate the Kudumbashree Model in Haryana. The Haryana delegation included Ms. Nishitha Banerjee, Chief Minister's Good Governance Associates, Haryana, Ms. Palak Rawal, Chief Minister's Good Governance Associates, Haryana and other officials from National Rural Livelihood Mission.

The State Rural Livelihood Mission team from Haryana visited the flour mill being operated under Pallipuram CDS. They also visited Aquaponics, Joint Liability Groups, DTP centre and health club as well. The SRLM team was welcomed by the Pallipuram Panchayath President, CDS Chairperson and Vice Chairperson. It is planned by the State Rural Livelihood Mission of Haryana to replicate the model of Poverty Alleviation and Women empowerment that Kudumbashree Mission had been implementing in Kerala.