About Us

Kudumbashree, the Kerala government’s poverty eradication mission, evolved from traditional community practices, government development programs and decentralization campaign experiences from across the state. Formed in 1998, the fundamental premise of Kudumbashree was that the poor need to be active agents in their own development. Poverty, especially of women, goes beyond the absence of facilities and services, it also concerns with rights, entitlements, responsibilities, justice and equality. The three-tiered structure of the Kudumbashree community organization network that has been federated to the level of the Local Government (Gram Panchayats/ Municipalities) was designed in line with this principle. The idea was to facilitate the collective agency of the poor, primarily poor women while giving it the form of a self-governing institution.

 

Kudumbashree focuses its programmes in three domains, economic empowerment, social empowerment and women’ empowerment.

 

Economic empowerment initiatives involves NHGs acting as sub-units of the Gram Sabha to engage with the local governance processes and as thrift and credit groups to meet financial needs of its members. Members of NHGs come together in activity groups for taking up various income generating activities such as collective farming and micro enterprises.

Social empowerment activities of the Mission includes projects focussing on the rehabilitation of destitute families, capability enhancement of children by preventing inter-generational transmission of poverty and rehabilitation of mentally challenged children and adults.

 

Women empowerment is a holistic term in itself. The Kudumbashree network provides ample opportunities to women to earn income and support their family. Once they are able to stand by themselves, they get involved in supporting the needy in their neighbourhood and community. The NHG collective and the network give the women strength to face problems and challenges, be it in the family or the neighbourhood. The Gender Self Learning Program (GSLP), Snehitha Gender Help Desk, Gender Corner and crime mapping are few initiatives in this direction.

 

For more details, please visit Kudumbashree website

Having proven its success in Kerala, in the year 2013 Kudumbashree was recognized as a National Resource Organization (NRO) by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India, under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). Kudumbashree NRO has been mandated to provide technical and implementation support to State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLMs), based on mutual interest in two major domains:

 

  • Panchayati Raj Institutions –Community Based Organizations (PRI-CBO) Convergence Project – Working together of women’s institutions with local governments to enhance governance
  • Enterprises- Promoting non-farm livelihoods through a community-based ecosystem approach. Youth from local communities are trained as consultants to support marginalized individuals in establishing and managing their own enterprises.

 

Apart from the above, Kudumbashree NRO has also been implementing Special Projects for partner states that are aimed at creating a model for supporting both PRI and CBO networks and for developing a community-based system for supporting micro enterprises.

 

The work done by Kudumbashree-NRO is based on the principle of creating local and state level capabilities for large-scale implementation of the interventions. The pilot projects are designed to be taken forward by the partner-States. By systematically investing in human and social capital, the intention is to help the most needy in increasing their livelihood opportunities and access to social security pensions/schemes meant for them. All these efforts have certainly paved way for a larger acceptance of NRO’s work at the national level.

 

Seeing the impact of Pilot Project, MoRD asked Kudumbashree NRO for the universalization of the Project by Involving with more states. The role of NRO also shifted from Implementation partner to the Knowledge and Technical Partner.

 

Concept

Kudumbashree NRO’s model revolves around the idea of working with rural communities, especially women, by fostering and strengthening their capacities through effective participation and self-organization. The focus is also on helping states develop interventions in a contextualized manner taking into consideration the remoteness and potentials of these communities.  While doing so Kudumbashree NRO also aims at supporting the State Mission Management Units in scaling up the interventions beyond the pilot stage.

 

NRO primarily works with women as they are seen as capable agents for driving the development process in their communities. This is done by fostering and strengthening their capacities for self-organization so that they are able to address challenges related to accessing of basic services and improving their livelihoods.

KS NRO works on developing pilots in different states and the partner states are expected to take these forward based on experiences of the pilots. The work will also entail putting in place an exit strategy with an emphasis on having an ecosystem within the community that can be replicated for scaling up in other parts of the state.

The following can be summed up as major steps while working with partner states

 

  • Developing proof of concept
  • Creating local capabilities
  • Building sustainable mechanisms
  • Support by trained professionals and experienced mentors

 

Developing proof of concept

KS-NRO believes that each location requires interventions suited to its particular context. The idea is to have diversified approach for diverse locations including GP/Block/District specific interventions within the broader framework of convergence and enterprise domain. KS NRO initially works at pilot locations in partner states that may include a combination of varied geographic and socioeconomic contexts, intensive, non-intensive and resource blocks as well as blocks coming under fifth schedule.

 

Creating local capabilities

Building local resource pools for carrying out the work within the community is an integral component of KS NRO’s work. This is being done by enhancing local capabilities and developing local leadership under both the domains through process oriented training programs. The community cadre which are being developed are gradually emerging as leaders capable of providing solutions to local issues.

 

Building sustainable mechanisms

Kudumbashree NRO recognizes the importance of putting in place mechanisms focusing on sustainable solutions for participatory governance, social inclusion and opportunities for livelihood. Under convergence domain, institutional platforms like VOCC (Village Organization Coordination Committee) and GPCC (Gram Panchayat Coordination Committee) are formed for strengthening interaction and liasoning between PRI and CBO. Under Enterprise domain, monitoring mechanisms like IT enabled Performance Tracking System (PTS) and MEC firms for providing technical support to enterprises within the community have been put in place.

 

Support by trained professionals and experienced mentors

Kudumbashree NRO provides support by combining the experience of resource persons from Kerala and trained professionals from reputed educational institutions. Mentors who are experienced resource persons from Kerala have rich experiential base of working within the institutional structure of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) and Community Based Organization (CBO). The idea behind using them as a resource for driving the project is to take the advantage of their insight into various development programs and their ability to make on-field judgements. The experience of these mentors are supplemented by the knowledge and skill of trained professionals who are recruited from reputed institutions across the country.

 

Strengthening participatory governance

 

 

The PRI-CBO Convergence project aims at strengthening participatory governance by creating platforms where constitutionally mandated panchayats work together with community based organizations. Kudumbashree NRO has been consciously engaging CBOs by increasing their capability to demand entitlements with the idea that a democratically conscious community will ensure effective service delivery by local government institutions. The project’s role in capacitating both Community Based Organizations (CBO) and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) has resulted in building a symbiotic relationship where both the institutions work together for their village’s development. The approach has led to strengthening of women’s participation in local governance and a more responsive panchayati raj system.

 

Improving rural livelihoods

 

 

The Enterprise promotion project focuses on improving rural livelihoods by nurturing an eco-system for encouraging entrepreneurship activities and sustaining rural micro-enterprises. Through the project, Kudumbashree NRO strives to develop strategies to increase rural entrepreneurship and promote local economic development. Rural entrepreneurship being integral to poverty reduction and sustainable livelihoods, the project envisages the establishment of a mechanism where in SHGs and their federations are made capable to drive enterprise development initiatives. It entails developing local resource pools through training and mentoring who are then equipped to provide market driven solutions to entrepreneurs.

 

Fostering innovations

 

 

The work carried out by Kudumbashree NRO is also influenced by the need to nurture innovations among the rural community. Many of the innovations introduced in partner states have been the direct result of its proven success in Kerala. Interventions like Balasabha- a democratic platform for children to participate in their development and GSLP- a self-learning program where women are encouraged to discuss about gender and its manifestations in their lived experiences have been implemented under convergence in states like Karnataka and Rajasthan. Whereas Beacon pilot initiatives based on successful models from Kerala like monthly markets, Café Kudumbashree and Nutrimix have been implemented in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Jharkhand. Such innovations strengthen the ecosystem of local community and can be an effective driving force for social and economic progress.

 

Sharing best practices

 

 

Kudumbashree-NRO has actively shared its good practices with other organisations since its inception. The process is facilitated by creating good practices database that connects people with information and learning mechanisms connecting people with people. Our commitment to knowledge sharing is demonstrated by the extensive exposure visits organized for various stakeholders, national workshops organised and participated in, publications it has produced for the dissemination of its concepts as well as tools and practices for a global audience.

 

Providing Professional Support

 

 

KS-NRO’s efforts in partner states is backed by a strong team of professionals and mentors who provide support involving multidisciplinary effort. It has selected and placed resource persons with several years of experience of working with Kudumbashree as Mentors in partner-States. Their work is coordinated by professionals selected from reputed educational institutions who provide back-end support and manage the overall activities of the state under each domain. An integrated work process comprising of monitoring, reporting and handholding system to coordinate the efforts geographically is put in place.

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