Influence of Kudumbasree on Women Empowerment – a Study

Abstract

Empowerment of women and their participation in the development process has been considered an essential feature of development. It is presumed that real development is possible only if the women and men work in equal terms. Gender equality and empowerment of women is recognized globally as a key element to achieve progress in all areas. Rural women are regarded as voiceless and defenseless. Raping cases are appearing in the newspapers every day. Even politicians are not supporting them. So they are to be empowered to fight against the evils faced by them. Kudumbasree project was started in Kerala in 1998. Women empowerment is one of the important objectives of Kudumbasree along with poverty eradication. The aim of the Kudumbashree scheme is to improve the standard of living of poor women in rural areas by setting up micro-credit and productive enterprises. It opened a new string of expected events in our development history Kudumbasree is the poverty eradication mission of the state of Kerala. It is a community based self help initiative involving poor women. Kudumbashree was conceived as a joint programme of the Government of Kerala and NABARD implemented through Community Development Societies of Poor Women, serving as the community wing of Local Governments .As per documents associated with Kudumbashree, women want to identify their inner strength, opportunities for growth and their role in reshaping their own destiny. Thirteen years are so far covered by this programme. The main objective of this paper is to know to what extend this programme has influenced the rural women for their empowerment. Kerala is considered as literate state compared with all the states of our country. The study indicates that majority of the members of Kudumbasree units are working on daily wages and their total income is low. The women empowerment has achieved only a limited extend by Kudumbasree members.