Context:

On 1 November 2025, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan officially announced in the state assembly on the occasion of State Formation Day that Kerala has become the first state in India to be free from extreme poverty.

About Athi Daridrya Nirmarjanam Project:

The project was launched in 2021 by the Government of Kerala with the goal of completely eradicating extreme poverty in the state by November 2025.

As part of the identification phase, 64,006 families (covering about 1,03,099 individuals) were recognised as living in extreme deprivation.

The identification used four core deprivation indicators:

1)    lack of adequate food,

2)    poor housing /landlessness,

3)    inadequate basic income or livelihood,

4)    poor health status / lack of access to healthcare.

For each identified family, a micro‐plan was prepared by local self‐government institutions (LSGIs) and the women’s network Kudumbashree.

These plans included:

• • • Provision of missing documentation (Aadhaar, ration card, voter ID, UDID for differently-abled) and access to basic services like health insurance and social security pensions.
    • Educational support for children in these families: study materials, financial aid, meals to ensure uninterrupted schooling. (While specific numbers in article form may vary, this support is part of the holistic plan.)
    • Infrastructure/institutional support: housing construction, land allotment, house renovation, livelihood initiatives through Kudumbashree’s Ujjeevanam scheme and other departmental programmes.

A digital Management Information System (MIS) was used to track each family’s progress, ensuring that the micro‐plan actions were monitored.

Significance of the Milestone

• • Achieving elimination of extreme poverty as defined by the state is a major policy achievement, signalling the potential of targeted welfare combined with community participation.
  • The initiative reflects a shift from broad poverty alleviation to focusing on the last mile of deprivation—those left out of conventional welfare nets.
  • It aligns with the global framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 1 (“No Poverty”) by demonstrating a sub-national entity aiming to reach full coverage.
  • It sets a model for other Indian states — how micro‐planning, data‐driven identification, and local self‐governance can be leveraged for inclusive development.

Conclusion

The Athi Daridrya Nirmarjanam Project in Kerala is a bold and focused attempt to eliminate the most extreme forms of deprivation in society. With the state declaring itself on track to become India’s first “extreme poverty‐free” state by November 1, 2025, the initiative stands as an important policy milestone. While the declaration itself is significant, the true test will lie in long-term sustainability, full inclusion, and replicability of the model elsewhere.