Kerala SHG women lead race in local polls
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Nearly 16,000 members of a popular selfhelp group in Kerala have pushed up women’s representation in the state’s local body polls, outnumbering men in the fray for what is considered the semi-final before the assembly elections next April.
Like the state’s healthy sex ratio — 1,057 females to 1,000 males — women have breached another male fort. Official data shows that of the 38,268 women candidates in the fray — there are 37,281 men — close to 16,000 belong to the self-help group Kudumbashree, known for its pioneering work in empowering women in rural areas.
The polls will be held on November 2 and 5.
The group’s workers are in great demand and parties competed against each other to field maximum candidates from it. Even in Muslim-dominated Malappuram, more than 70% of the 1,260 candidates are from Kudumbashree.
“Families are the backbone of any village. Our workers always interact with families, so they go well with them. They are also experts in ironing out major local issues,” Kudumbashree state programme officer T Shahul Hameed said. Belonging to the lowest strata of the society, most of the group’s members are often dubbed as role models in the villages.
Launched in 1998 in a small way, it is aimed at empowering women through concentrated community activities to tackle poverty. It is based on three principles of selfsustenance — empowerment, entrepreneurship and quality life — and works in five major areas of animal husbandry, production sector, farming, service industry, and handicrafts units.
The group comprises a threetier system — a neighbourhood group, the lowest level, is where ideas are conceived. The next two levels, area development societies and community development committees, monitor and implement them. Officers of the state social welfare department supervise their work and provide financial aid.
“Unlike seasoned politicians, who appear only during poll time, we live in the midst of the common people. In a small ward it is easy to interact with residents and understand their problems. It makes us popular with the masses,” said K Beena, a candidate in Thiruvananthapuram.
“Belonging to economically weaker sections, we know poverty better than anyone else. We know how to tackle it. Our experience in Kudumbashree helps us manage things easily,” said M Radhmani, a UDF candidate in Kasaragod (north Kerala), who has been working with the group for 17 years.
Earlier, Kudumbashree was identified with the Left but now all parties have penetrated into the model poverty eradication programme that has been replicated by many states, including Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Recently, teams from Ethiopia and South Africa came here to study it.