Success Story of Kerala Kudumbashree Mission

About Kudumbashree:

Kudumbashree is the women empowerment and poverty eradication program, framed and enforced by the State Poverty Eradication Mission (SPEM) of the Government of Kerala.

Established in 1998, this Mission envisages eradication of absolute poverty by combining Local Economic Development, promoting Micro finance, starting livelihood activities in farming and non farming sectors and implementing various activities in social development.

Kudumbashree, a community organization of Self Help Groups (SHG's) of women in Kerala, has been recognized as an effective strategy for the empowerment of women in rural as well as urban areas: bringing women together from all spheres of life to fight for their rights or for empowerment. The overall empowerment of women is closely linked to economic empowerment. 

Kudumbashree Mission is also the nodal agency of many Government of India schemes like NRLM, NULM, SVEP, DDUGKY, MKSP, PMAY etc.

Picture : Shri. S. Harikishore, Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission

Picture - Manjary Asok, Communication Specialist, Kudumbashree Mission 

Picture - Chaithanya.G, Communication Specialist, Kudumbashree Mission

Carrying out checkups and earning up to Rs 1 lakh: Success Story of a Santhwanam Volunteer of Kudumbashree Mission

Deepthi was only a house wife who was striving to meet both the ends of her life few years back. Now, she is making some difference and is earning much more than a normal house wife would ever do! After getting her children ready for school and finishing her kitchen chores, she visits the patients who would be waiting for her to come to get their health checkups done. Deepthi is one of the volunteers of the ‘Santhwanam’ Programme being implemented by Kudumbashree, the State Poverty Eradication Mission of Kerala.

What is ‘Santhwanam’ Programme?

Santhwanam is a major intervention of Kudumbashree Mission in the Healthcare sector. With lifestyle diseases on the rise,  visits to hospitals and clinics for periodical checkups has become most common among the poor as well as the elite. This prompted Kudumbashree to think of an alternative and thus Santhwanam project became part of Kudumbashree livelihood programmes. It is a collaborative effort of Kudumbashree and Health Action by People (HAP), a not-for-profit health research organization, which is in the forefront in health education, public health research and health policy interventions in Kerala, committed to serve the people in the field of health and development, led by a group of committed doctors sharing a common vision and ideal.

 Women from Kudumbashree families having SSLC education or plus-two education or graduation in science are selected for the Santhwanam enterprises. They are given seven days of intensive training on technical inputs and personality development by HAP. The entrepreneurs are trained in checking the height, body weight, body mass index, cancer detection, blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol of people they visit at home to check on their diseases. The medical equipment and strips required for the checkups are supplied by HAP.

Kudumbashree imparts performance improvement training to these people after every six months of functioning. The Santhwanam groups also take part in fairs and festivals, where they get plenty of patients to carry out checkups on and earn a good income. This is in addition to the regular house visits they undertake for periodic checkups. The main benefit of this scheme is that the periodic checkups give individuals a warning about their state of health so that they can go to a hospital in time for further treatment if necessary. A total of 297 Santhwanam Volunteers are extending their services across the state.

More about Deepthi and her Service

Deepthi Rajeev hails from Pallipad of Alappuzha District of Kerala. She is an active member of Kudumbashree Mission who earns around Rs 75,000 per month through the Santhwanam Programme. During some months, her monthly income reaches up to Rs 1 lakh. She is doing nothing but helping the local people stay healthy by assisting them in identifying the lifestyle diseases and get timely and effective medical treatments. It’s after attending the training extended by Kudumbashree Mission that Deepthi started working associating with HAP. It is through the training, Deepthi gained expertise in operating the medical equipments for imparting the health checkups in systematic way. She had spent a total of Rs 85,000 including her savings and bank loan for buying the medical equipments.  She had also bought a scooter for reaching out to more people. Deepthi had received a subsidy of Rs 7500 from Kudumbashree Alappuzha District Mission. No, she is also doing Hemoglobin tests as well. The details of the checkups including the date on which the test was conducted and the test results are recorded and are handed over to HAP. The other equipments are bought from HAP paying the amount in advance.  Rs 20, Rs 30, Rs 80, Rs 80 are charged for testing Blood Pressure & Weight, Diabetes, Cholesterol and Hemoglobin respectively.

Deepthi has proved that it is possible to make a difference and  become successful in life, if one have a willingness to do the same. She has also become a role model to many like-minded women. By extending opportunities to many women like Deepthi, Kudmbashree Mission is giving wings to the dreams of many.