Kudumbashree is to join hands with the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), Gujarat in facilitating Village Fieldwork Segment of their two years Post Graduate Programme in Rural Management. The Institute of Rural Management Anand is India`s leading school in rural management committed to act as the catalyst and facilitator of rural prosperity, who educates those inspired to work with organisations serving the rural sector and engaging directly with rural communities. The students of IRMA will spend 7 weeks continuously in a village in Kerala. During their stay the students will get an opportunity to observe and experience village life and engage in exploring the lives and livelihoods of village residents. They will also be able to explore their hopes, aspirations, potential for change and the various constraints they face. Students from different parts of the country will get the opportunity to learn in detail about the livelihood of the villagers and the notable interventions made by Kudumbashree in the state.

Kudumbashree is equipped to make new remarkable interventions for the betterment of the livelihood of the common people in the state. A new team of experienced professionals from various sectors joined Kudumbashree Mission. The newly joined Professionals will be working at the state mission and district mission to make sure that the projects designed and implemented for the social and economic empowerment of women are reaching out to the grass root level. Around 200 professionals from various sectors were appointed in various schemes of Kudumbashree Mission. A Two day Residential Orientation programme was also conducted for the newly joined team to understand the different programmes of Kudumbashree Mission.

The 'Gothra Parliament ' organised by Kudumbashree to study the issues faced by the tribal students in the state set a unique model.The parliament arranged to study in detail, the issues faced by the students from the tribal areas was conducted at the Old Legislative Assembly Hall on 9 August 2017. Selected 192 Students from Attappady took part in the programme. Stop the discrimination that the tribal students face, arrange higher education, construct toilets in schools, promote ethnic food in the 'Anganvadis', support those children who lost their parents in continuing their education, increase the participation of the tribal students in state youth festivals and sports meets were the issues discussed at the 'Gothra Parliament'.

The issues put forward by the students would be compiled and the reports would be sent to the concerned departments. As a follow-up, Bala Adalats would also be arranged.
On attending the 'Gothra Parliament' Shri. C. Raveendranath, Hon. Minister for Education, Government of Kerala said that priority would be given for constructing hostels for tribal girl students in the state. He added that libraries would also be set up for the tribal students.The ' Gothra Parliament ' was conducted under the leadership of Shri. S. Harikishore, Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission.

Kudumbashree endeavors to create village level vegetable markets to provide remunerative prices to farmers and good quality, farm fresh, pesticide free products to the consumers. 2000 village level markets have planned in the month of August, through which more than 4000 tons of vegetable cultivated by the members of Kudumbashree would be sold directly to the consumers. Please visit the following link to know the venues and dates

Kudumbashree Pre Onam Markets - Aug 07 to 16

Kudumbashree Pre Onam Markets - Aug 17 to 26

Kudumbashree Pre Onam Markets - Aug 27 onwards

Kudumbashree Pre Onam Markets - Photos

Sensitisation Programme on "Good Construction Practices including Emerging Technologies for Housing" held at Hotel Apollo Dimora on 03 August 2017. The workshop was organised jointly by Kudumbashree and Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council of India. Hon'ble Minister for LSGD Dr. K.T.Jaleel inaugurated the workshop. Dr.Shailesh Kr.Agrawal, Executive Director, BMTPC presided over the function. Shri. S.Harikishore I.A.S and Dr.Adeela Abdulla I.A.S participated in the function. Shri.Binu Francis delivered the vote of thanks. Policymakers, Key officials, Engineers and  Secretaries of urban local bodies participated in the workshops.16 innovative construction technologies were introduced in the meeting.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) is a placement linked skill development scheme for rural youth. In Kerala, Kudumbashree is the nodal agency for implementing DDU-GKY Program. At present DDU-GKY has empanelled 34 agencies providing training in 32 different trades such as Dental Ceramic Technician, Banking Correspondent, Accountants (Tally), BPO, Hospitality, Retail etc. The aim is to provide skill training to 52,000 youth before 2019. Of this 18,000 candidates are trained State Level Coordination committee (SLCC) empowered to empanel Project Implementing Agencies for skill training, approved the proposal for 22 new Project Implementing Agencies, awarding a target of 17,786 candidates

Samanwayam 2017, the two day residential workshop for Panchayath Presidents, Welfare Standing Committee Chair Person/ Chairman, CDS Chair Person and Member Secretary were conducted by Kudumbashree. In  Kannur, the workshop was conducted on 25-26 July at Yamunatheeram, Payyanur. In Kollam, the workshop took place on 27-28 July at Christhu Jyothi Animation Centre, Kottiyam.

Kudumbashree and Local Self Government jointly plans to start ‘She Lodges’ in cities for women travellers. The programme envisages to provide food and shelter for women travellers and girl students at nominal rates. She lodges will start functioning on 1 November 2017 at Kollam & Varkala. The She Lodges will be working under the concerned Municipalities & Corporations. The Local Bodies should arrange the basic amenities including the building for starting She Lodges.

The staff for She Lodges would be directly appointed from Kudumbashree. It is planned to design a logo for ‘She Lodge’ and to make avail centralised online booking, administration, housekeeping, security, food and other basic amenities. The cafe Kudumbashrees located at the concerned townships are supposed to supply Food to the She Lodges. With the launch of She Lodges, women empowerment will be reaching to more heights.

As part of the state government’s effort to draw up a sustainable housing programme for the shelter less in the state, Kudumbashree conducted a survey of the shelter-less poor living in urban areas from 15-25 July 2017. The survey collected information about their age, marital status, income occupation, native place, health issues and problems faced by them during the late night hours. The identified homeless will then be provided with round-the-clock shelter homes equipped with essential services.
Sustainable shelter homes would be built in each urban centre across the state, according to the number of homeless identified in the survey.The shelter homes would provide adequate security, sanitation facilities and drinking water for the homeless people.

The 'Shelter for Urban Homeless' scheme is being implemented as part of the National Urban Livelihood Mission and Kudumbashree, the nodal agency of the program in the state.
A team, comprising members of the National Urban Livelihood Mission, corporation, municipality, health department and the police, would conduct the survey. Inclusion card was distributed to the people who were identified as homeless. So far around 2500 people were identified as homeless from 84 Urban Local Bodies. Out of them 5 were transgenders, identified from Calicut.

In 2011, Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) was launched in Kerala as a sub component of Nation Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) with the objectives of increasing the visibility of women in agriculture, reducing drudgery and providing livelihood opportunities by adopting sustainable and eco-friendly agriculture. Till then, the lack of resources, skills and knowledge were leading rural women to accept menial jobs for meagre salary. Through the intervention of Joint liability groups (JLG), Kudumbashree tries to address these issues by collectivising the rural women to undertake lease land farming and they are encouraged to become first time farmers from peasants.

JLG is a group of four to ten women, coming together to undertake agriculture as part of their livelihood. They lease the lands from land owners and start cultivation based on the local resource availability. Lease land farming and collective farming as intervention was started in 2003-04, which over the years has achieved various milestones. Presently there are more than 70,652 Joint liability groups undertaking cultivation in 43,774 hectare of land. As the project has grown over the years, the number of JLG and area under cultivation has increased, however the limited resources at the staff level often resulted in reduced monitoring of this many groups. In order to overcome this challenge, community level evaluation agents named as JEVA (JLG evaluation agents) were instituted in 2017, as part of this programme, 605 women master farmers were selected through a rigorous selection procedure to create this evaluation team. 4 JEVA members are in charge of each of the 152 blocks of Kerala. These agents physically verify the cultivation of the JLG and provide the necessary inputs for farming group. Presently more than 50620 JLG has been evaluated by the JEVA agent by visiting their farm lands.