‘Sheer hoax’: UDF rejects Kerala govt’s declaration of state being ‘free of extreme poverty’

One of the flagship schemes of the second Vijayan regime, the Extreme Poverty Eradication Programme (EPEP) covers 64,006 families identified as distressed based on broad factors such as income, health, food, and housing. Launched in 2021 with the local self-government department as the nodal agency, the EPEP has been implemented with the help of various departments, with micro-plans tailored for each family after identifying the factors that kept them in extreme poverty.

Making the statement in the assembly under Rule 300 (which pertains to a declaration of public significance), the chief minister said this year’s Kerala formation day marks the beginning of a new era for the people of Kerala. The day, he said, will find a place in history as Kerala has become the first state in the country free from extreme poverty.

He said that as per the Multidimensional Poverty Index of NITI Aayog, the population of Kerala below the poverty line was 0.48 percent in 2022-23. Accordingly, 1,64,640 people are below the poverty line. The population of Kerala in 2025 is estimated at 3.60 crore. NITI Aayog’s figures show that 1,72,800 people are below the poverty line, he said.

Referring to a 1975 report of the United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs and the Centre for Development Studies on “poverty, unemployment and development policy in Kerala,” Vijayan said that in those days, 90.75 percent of people in rural areas and 88.89 percent in urban areas were below the poverty line. That shows Kerala once had the highest number of people below the poverty line among Indian states. It is from that situation that Kerala has now become the first state to eradicate extreme poverty, he said.

Meanwhile, Opposition leader V D Satheesan said the declaration was “sheer hoax”. “If Kerala is declared free from extreme poverty, will it not deprive the Union government’s ration provision for six lakh Antyodaya Anna Yojana ration card holders in the state? (Antyodaya Anna Yojana ration cards are issued to the ‘poorest of the poor.’) Are the state’s over one lakh tribal families out of extreme poverty? The LDF election manifesto of 2021 had stated that Kerala had 4.5 lakh extremely poor people. How has that figure come down to 64,000?” asked Satheesan.