The Kudumbashree Story

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Urban Programmes

Kudumbashree Mission is the State Urban Development Agency of the Government of Kerala. The Mission plays a pivotal role in coordinating urban poverty alleviation schemes of the Central and State governments. For the Central urban schemes, Kudumbashree Mission is the Nodal Agency for implementation. 

Urban Poverty Alleviation Schemes

Kudumbashree is the implementing agency for urban poverty eradication programmes of the Government of India.

These programmes include:

  • Swarna Jananti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY), and the two employment programmes under it: Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP) and Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP). Subsequently, when SJSRY was re-launched as National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM), Kudumbashree became its implementing agency too.
  • National Slum Development Programme (NSDP)
  • Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY)

When the following centrally sponsored programmes were initiated, the Kudumbashree Mission became the implementing agency for them as well.

  • Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and its components: Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP) for Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi urban conglomerations, Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) for smaller towns, Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) aiming at slum-free cities.
  • Urban Statics for Human Resources and Assistance (USHA).
  • Rejiv Rin Yojana (RRY).
  • Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing Urban Poor (IHSUP).

Kudumbashree Mission's role in the urban development and poverty alleviation programmes included the following.

  • Facilitation and sensitisation
  • Staffing, including hiring of expert services
  • Empowering urban local governments including Municipal Corporations and Municipalities
  • Project design 
  • Training
  • Community interface management and mobilisation
  • Project monitoring

In the case or urban schemes, the Mission had to tread unknown territories. It had to engage with programmes with technical components for which the Mission did not have the required capacities. Therefore, delivering on such schemes posed a huge challenge to the Mission. The additional efforts and resources that the Mission had to put in for implementation of the schemes, however, helped in creating a buy-in for its own programmes in urban areas.

For instance, the experience of IHSDP implementation subsequently helped the Mission in rolling out urban livelihood projects. Leveraging on the wider acceptance gained through the implementation of urban schemes helped the Mission in the implementation of Special Livelihood Project (SLP). SLP, has been built on the premise of local economic development and used a comprehensive approach to livelihood planning for urban poor. 

Achievements as of March 2015

  • Seven BSUP projects in two Municipal Corporations and 53 IHSDP projects in 45 Municipalities, which provide assistance for construction and renovation of 49,872 houses and basic amenities worth Rs 8648 lakhs. 
  • RAY projects in six urban local governments; Slum-Free City Plans have been finalised for five cities. The project envisages 1892 new houses and 197 renovations in addition to providing basic amenities in slums.
  • Financial assistance to 2456 beneficiaries, to the tune of Rs 25.64 crore, for construction, renovation, or purchase of houses under IHSDP.
  • Slum mapping in 37 urban local governments under USHA.
  • National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) in 14 urban local governments - Financial assistance or revolving funds for formation or strengthening of the community network and financial assistance for renovation or new construction of shelters in four urban local governments.