Kudumbashree Micro Enterprise Consultants attended International Labour Organization's refresher training held at New Delhi. Smt. Ambily Bhaskaran, Micro Enterprise Consultant from Kottayam and Smt. Deepa Jayalal, Micro Enterprise Consultant from Kollam, attended the Competency Reinforcement Workshop for Master Trainers and active Trainers of International Labour Organization's Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme held at New Delhi during 4-6 June 2018.

The master trainers of ILO extended training to the MECs on the topic 'Start and Improve Your Business' (SIYB). Gender equality and women's economic empowerment and the ILO tools available for that, Current trends in Entrepreneurship Development-Green Enterprise, Social Enterprise, Sustainable Enterprise, Global Perspectives of SIYB- integrating SIYB into other programmes, Market system and market development approach, the SIYB methodology, participatory training methods, review of individual progress etc were discussed at the refresher training. Shri. Issac Singh& Shri. Khaleel Ul Rahman, Master Trainers, International Labour Organization led the activity orientation sessions.

Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) is currently the largest global business management training programme with the focus on starting and improving businesses as a strategy for creating more and better employment for women and men. It supports the sustainable development goals by promoting the business development policies that support decent job creation, entrepreneurship and encourage the growth of micro, small and medium enterprises.It also supports productive employment and decent work for all, including the youth and persons with disabilities.

The association with International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations agency dealing with labour problems, particularly international labour standards, social protection, and work opportunities will enable Kudumbashree Mission to create revolutionary changes in micro enterprise development in Kerala. By giving assistance in identifying the most suitable micro enterprises, MECs are extending their full support for the women entrepreneurs. Micro Enterprise Consultants also facilitate training, marketing services and Business counselling as well.

Marking the first anniversary celebrations of its commercial operations, Kochi Metro, the first metro system in the country with an integrated multi modal transport system felicitated the 'super women' of Kudumbashree who had been employed in the Facility Management Department of Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL). Kudumbashree women were honored at the programme held at Edapally Metro Station, Kochi on 17 June 2018. Kudumbashree have been providing a vast array of services from customer relations, crowd management, housekeeping and catering services and became the largest crew of women to be employed by any metro. KMRL, along with Kudumbashree, had included persons from Transgender community in its operations, and thus became the first organization to appoint transgender persons as per the transgender policy of the Kerala Government.

The unique aspect of Kochi Metro itself is the deployment of the members of Kudumbashree, the women empowerment-oriented, community based self help groups for managing the operations at the metro stations. Kudumbashree women had risen above all the perceptions and excelled by their performance and hence elevated themselves into a world class work force. As per the agreement between Kudumbashree and Kochi Metro, all the services ranging from parking management to customer facilitation, from ticketing to housekeeping are entrusted with Kudumbashree. The ‘women metro team’ were selected through a rigorous process. More than 40,000 candidates appeared for the written exam, and the selected ones were called for a personal interview and out of them the women team were chosen. Kudumbashree members or their families were allowed to apply for the same.

Kudumbashree made its first major foray into the facility management market by establishing its own Facility Management Centre targeting at providing facility management services to major public and private sector companies. Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) became its first client. Later it has added Vyttila Mobility, Kerala's largest bus station to the client list. Facility Management Centre has put in place a performance appraisal system in which the employee performance is measured and analysed based on the clients feedback and requirements. It also has mentoring and personal coaching program for employees to improve performance. A proper 'Rewards and Recognition' program was also implemented to keep the best performers motivated and committed to the work. To keep the staff updated with the new trends in the facility management markets, the service of the internal training team is also used to continuously train the staff. The staff are also trained on soft skills and business etiquette to exhibit behavioral discipline on the floor. It also has put in place all the legal and mandatory compliance like Minimum wages Act, ESI and PF provisions etc and also has a valid GST registration. Kudumbashree Facility Management Center has today become of an epicenter for providing employment for women by so providing thousands of women employed with its clients.

Kudumbashree invitied entries for the Photography competition and logo designing competition in connection with the Animal Birth Control programme of Kudumbashree Mission. ' Stray Dog Issue' is the theme for Photography Competition. Those who are interested may take part in the competition by  sending their photographs. The entries should be sent on or before 5 July 2018. An applicant can send only one photograph. Photos should be in jpeg format and should be send to abcphotospem@gmail.com

Logos are to be designed for the Suraksha Campaign 2018 campaign, which is being conducted in the state to make the people aware of the Animal Birth Control activities of Kudumbashree.

An applicant can send upto 3 entries. The entries should be of 300 dpi resolution  and 3"x3" size. 5 July 2018 is the last date for receiving logos.The entries should be jpeg format and should be send to abclogospem@gmail.com

Name, address, email id, passport size photo of the applicant, mobile number etc should be attached  alongwith. Rs 10,000 and memento and Rs 5,000  and memento would be given for those who come in first and second places respectively in each competitions.

The Kudumbashree women are busy rewriting history by undertaking works in the construction sector. About 50 houses are under construction by Kudumbashree Groups across the state. 35 houses of LIFE Mission were identified and the construction of 19 houses had already been started. The project aims at creating women construction groups in the state who can take up the construction of houses, buildings and roads. Even though it was targeted to identify 100 units and 30 houses, a total of 140 groups were identified across the state.

On anticipating the huge shortage of labour force in the near future because of various determined Government campaigns of mass housing, it was decided to extend training to women in construction sector so as to form labour contract groups of women entrepreneurs who can take up construction of houses of poor and needy, in addition to taking up bigger projects. Training on construction activities for Kudumbashree members aims to extend skill training for women in various trades in the construction industry for enhancing the skill of the women in construction related activities such that a sustainable income is generated. It is envisaged to form one construction group in each development block and in each urban local body. Those units who would complete the work of more than 10 houses would be given Government accreditation.

The women are being given training in the various governmental schemes in the construction sector such as PMAY, Life, Asraya, Snehaveed etc. Acrredited agenicies like State Nirmithi Kendra District Nirmithi Kendra, Maithri, Habitat, Thrissur Labour Contracting Society, Pinarayi Industrial Cooperative Society, Kerala State Housing Board, Kerala State Construction Corporation, Costford, Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society, Kitco, Eksath etc are extending construction training to the identified groups in the respective districts under the leadership of the the District Mission Coordinators.

During this Onam season, a Mall for women by women would be opened in the State. Kudumbashree Mahila Mall, the exclusive mall for women would be launched by Kudumbashree Mission of Kozhikode soon. Kudumbashree Mahila Mall is the  project by the Kozhikode Corporation Kudumbashree, in association with the Kozhikode District Kudumbashree Mission. The mall located at the heart of the city on Wayanad Road would be launched during August 2018. 

The Mall is the initiative of 10 women of unity group under Corporation Kudumbashree CDS. Kudumbashree Mahila Mall would be an opportunity for the women entrepreneurs of Kudumbashree to market their products. With five floors spread over 36,000 sq ft in 54 cent plot, the project would have 60 shops which would give jobs directly and indirectly to at least 300 women. Preference would be given to Kudumbashree workers and space for women’s societies and private ventures. Women would take care of the mall management and the administration. All the staff  of the mall shall be women. The mall will house all kinds of enterprises such as supermarket, food court, kids park, spa, beauty parlour, women’s bank, fancy stores, textiles and readymades, boutiques, footwear, dry cleaning, car washing, opticals, handicrafts, baby care, home appliances and book stall. Besides, there will be conference rooms, training centres and underground car parking facility. A Food  court  would be set up at the roof top which would cater ethnic food items. 

Smt. K Beena, former CDS President, Smt. K. Vijaya, President, Technoworld, and Shri. M.V Ramzi Ismail, Project officer, Corporation Kudumbashree would be the President, Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Mall. The booking for the shops at the mall is progressing. In addition to the trade fairs and temporary markets,there was the need for a more permanent arrangement so everyone would get a market. Mahila Mall would be launched as a solution to that. Through Mahila Mall, Kudumbashree is about to give all Kudumbashree women under one roof.

Kudumbashree Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs)- Shree Krishna NHG from Kottukal Panchayath of Thiruvananthapuram District and Gramalakshmi NHG of Kaipamangalam Panchayath of Thrissur District received the National Awards constituted by National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) for the best performing NHGs from Shri. Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Rural Development, Government of India at the function held at A. P Shinde Hall, Pusa, New Delhi on 11 June 2018. Dr. K.R Shaiju, District Mission Coordinator, Thiruvananthapuram, Shri. Siyad. S, Assistant District Mission Coordinator, Thiruvananthapuramm, Shri. Baiju Muhammed M.A, Assistant District Mission Coordinator, Thrissur, Smt. Mini. A.K, CDS Chairperson, Thrissur, Smt. Prasanna Kumari, CDS Chairperson, Thiruvananthapuram, Smt. Omana Gopi, NHG President, Gramalakshmi NHG,Thrissur, Smt. Najeera, NHG Secretary, Gramalakshmi NHG, Thrissur, Smt. Radhika.O, NHG Secretary, Shree Krishna NHG, Thiruvananthapuram and Smt. Priyanka.V. NHG Member, Shree Krishna NHG, Thiruvananthapuram received the award from the Minister.

The Award was constituted for felicitating the NHGs who had shown outstanding performance. The activities performed during the previous financial year was considered for conferring the awards. The number of NHG meetings called, number of members attended, average attendance of each member, number of members who had attended trainings, total thrift, disbursal of corpus fund, internal lending status, community investment fund availed, corpus fund, total number of bank loans availed, number of units started using the bank loans, annual income, number of entrepreneurs included, scope of the enterprise, income, consistency, number of individual micro enterprises, regularity in keeping register, number of members who have personal bank accounts, ratio of the members who have insurance coverage, ratio of members who have sanitation facility at their homes and the leadership quality were the criteria for conferring the award. As per the guidelines, the respective district missions had submitted selected 3 NHGs from every districts. The selection committee comprising of Shri. S. Harikishore, Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission, Smt. Ramlath, Director, Kudumbashree Mission and Shri. Pramod K.V, Programme Officer, selected the best 3 NHGs out of the 42 NHGs selected by the district and submitted to NRLM and out of those 3 NHGs, Shree Krishna NHG from Kottukal Panchayath of Thiruvananthapuram District and Gramalakshmi NHG of Kaipamangalam Panchayath of Thrissur District bagged the award.

Suraksha 2018, the State Level Animal Birth Control Awareness Campaign to propagate the ABC programme to the grassroot level was launched. Adv.K.Raju, Minister for Animal Husbandry, Forest, Dairy Development and Zoos,Government of Kerala inaugurated the campaign at IMG Hall, Thiruvananthapuram on 11 June 2018.

ABC Programme being implemented by Kudumbashree is the best way for controlling the breeding of dogs. Through the programme, 16,000 dogs across the state had been sterilized so far. Minister said. He also appreciated the efforts taken by Kudumbashree regarding the  Animal Birth Control activities. It is appreciable that Kudumbashree women are earning a life out of the same.  We could achieve self sufficiency in Dairy. It is also aimed to attain self sufficiency in ABC and Kerala Chicken as well. Minister added.

The programme envisages to propagate the awareness  on animal birth control upto the grassroot level. For the success of the programme it needs to be publicized among the common public and elected representatives. The  programme mainly focus on extending training to the existing ABC units, to propagate the details of the programme to more beneficiaries and start new ABC units. Photography Competition on ' Stray Dogs' would be conducted and ward-district level workshops would be conducted alongwith.

Shri. K. Muraleedharan, MLA presided over the function. Shri. S. Harikishore, Executive Director,Kudumbashree, Dr.N.N. Sasi, Director, Animal Husbandry Department and Shri. Binu.I.P, Ward Counsellor, Kunnukuzhy also attended the function. Dr.Nikesh Kiran, Programme  Officer, Animal Husbandry, Kudumbashree welcomed the gathering and Dr.L.Ravikumar, ABC Expert extended vote of thanks.

Lissy D Silva was like any other woman until she joined Kudumbashree. Hailing from Fort Kochi, she had studied upto twelfth standard only. And now she had transcended boundaries through Kudumbashree Mission. It is through EST&P ( Employment through Skills Training & Placement of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NULM) that Lissy's life had changed. She had undergone the orientation programme organised in the west CDS of Kochi Corporation.  She had an ardent desire to get employed and earn a livelihood of her own. And later she was enrolled in the NULM housekeeping batch 1 of Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Kalamassery, Ernakulam after aptitude test and counselling. Under the guidance of veteran trainers of Rajagiri, she was able to discover her true potential and hidden talents. From there, she learned the lessons of housekeeping, soft skills, IT skills and English. A grooming session was also arranged alongwith.  

After the successful completion of the course, Lissy was given placement in ABAD group by Rajagiri. She worked in the housekeeping section of ABAD for almost an year. Later she was recruited to their overseas school in Dubai. Presently, she is working as a housekeeping supervisor in 'The Bloomington Academy', Ajman, Dubai with a salary of Rs 25,000 per month.Her story can be considered as one of the best epitomes of Kudumbashree Mission's interventions.

Kudumbashree Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs) bagged the National Award constituted by National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) for the best performing NHGs. Shree Krishna NHG from Kottukal Panchayath of Thiruvananthapuram District and Gramalakshmi NHG of Kaipamangalam Panchayath of Thrissur District are the NHGs which bagged the  National Award. Shri. Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Rural Development, Government of India will give away the awards at the function ti be held at A. P Shinde Hall, Pusa, Newdelhi on 11 June 2018.

The Award is constituted for felicitating the NHGs who had shown outstanding performance. The activities performed during the previous financial year would be considered for giving the awards. The number of NHG meetings called, number of members attended, average attendance of each member, number of members who had attended trainings, total thrift, disbursal of corpus fund, internal lending status, community investment fund availed, corpus fund, total number of bank loans availed, number of units started using the bank loans, annual income, number of entrepreneurs included, scope of the enterprise, income, consistency, number of individual micro enterprises, regularity in keeping register, number of members who have personal bank accounts, ratio of the members who have insurance coverage, ratio of members who have latrine facility at their homes and the leadership quality were the criteria for deciding the award.

As per the guidelines, the respective district missions had submitted selected 3 NHGs from every districts. The selection committee comprising of  Shri. S. Harikishore, Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission, Smt. Ramlath, Director, Kudumbashree Mission and Shri. Pramod K.V, Programme Officer, selected the best 3 NHGs out of the 42 NHGs selected by the district and submitted to NRLM and out of those 3 NHGs two of them bagged the award.

Kudumbashree bagged Award for effectively implementing activities for curbing plastic. Shri. M.M Mani, Minister for Electricity, Government of Kerala gave away the award to Smt. Niranjana N.S, Programme Officer, Micro enterprises, Kudumbashree Mission at the programme held at Kanakakunnu Palace on 5 June 2018, Environment Day. The award was constituted by Haritha Kerala Mission in association with Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Kerala.

It's for successfully implementing various activities for eliminating and minimizing the use of plastic that Kudumbashree received the award.  Kudumbashree had been implementing 3 different type of activities for eliminating plastic. Harithakarmasena for recycling the plastic, paper bag making enterprises as an alternative to plastic products, lending of reusable plates and glasses are the few initiatives that Kudumbashree Mission had put forward to fight back plastic pollution.  Haritha Karma sena is a professional team consisting of Green Technicians and Green Supervisors mainly Kudumbashree Women who are assigned with the responsibility of collection, transportation, processing, recycling / disposal, and management of waste materials in association with respective Local Self Government Institutions and Suchithwa Mission. 

Kudumbashree have in hand 77 Micro Enterprise units who are producing eco friendly products like paper bags, paper pen, paper covers, paper plates, paper files , paper chappals, cloth bags, bamboo products, screw pine product units etc.  Around 50,000 such products are being sold out a month. During the season time it would increase upto 2 lakhs, which means that Kudumbashree could reduce the use of that much amount of plastic. Kudumbshree also have units which which make paper flowers, jewellery as well and have 12 units which make screw pine products. There are 6 swap shop units working under Kudumbashree which lend utensils in bulk quantity to reduce the use of plastic and other non bio degradable products. Such Kudumbashree centres help in following the Green Protocol. While conducting trade fairs also, Kudumbashree focus in keeping the same eco friendly and made use of eco friendly products such as bamboo, sacks, jute etc for decorating and used palm products and reusable plates made of fibre, ceramic and steel for serving the food. Kudumbashree members had also been making active participation in fighting against plastic during the pilgrimages like Sabarimala, Malayattoor, Malayalapuzha, Aluva Shivaratri, Attukal etc.