Kerala all set to become first Indian state to eradicate extreme poverty: Minister MB Rajesh

Kerala Minister M. B. Rajesh on Thursday stated that the state is set to become the first in India to eradicate extreme poverty. He explained that the initiative was the first decision taken by the second Pinarayi Vijayan government in its "very first cabinet meeting" after returning to power in 2021, to launch an exclusive scheme to eradicate extreme poverty.

"Kerala is all set to create yet another history by becoming the first Indian state to eradicate extreme poverty. This was the first decision taken by the second Pinarayi government in its very first cabinet meeting after coming back to power in 2021. The government launched an exclusive scheme to eradicate extreme poverty," Rajesh told ANI. He said that after identifying and finalising the list of extremely poor families, micro-plans were prepared for each family. He said the government had lifted 64,006 families out of extreme poverty.

"The very first step was to identify extremely poor families through an elaborate process. A process was carried out involving public representatives, local bodies, social organisations, and voluntary organisations to find out about extremely poor families. 4 lakh people were trained by the Kerala Institute of Local Administration to carry out this exercise," he said. "After identifying and finalising the list of extremely poor families, micro plans were prepared for each and every family...These micro plans had immediate plans, medium-term plans and long-term plans. After four years, we have implemented these micro plans and through the implementation of micro plans we have been able to bring these 64,006 families out of extreme poverty," he added.

Rajesh further claimed that "after China, Kerala is becoming second place in the world to eradicate extreme poverty." However, the Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar criticised the state's ruling CPM government for claiming credit for reducing extreme poverty, calling it "mocking the poor."

"For the CPM government today, which has actually brought only about a few lakhs of people out of extreme poverty, to say that they are responsible for bringing people out of extreme poverty is mocking the poor because when ASHA workers were asking for a small salary increase... the CPM tried to take credit for this, which is mocking the poor... These people are now making it a profession to use propaganda to mislead the people and to spread lies and try to get political benefit out of this," Chandrasekhar told reporters earlier this week. Chandrasekhar also cited recent World Bank data, highlighting the impact of central government schemes.

"The World Bank, in April 2025, published an extensive report showing that in an unprecedented surge of people coming out of poverty in the last 10 years, PM Modi's policies have helped almost 20 crore Indians who lived below extreme poverty to come out of it. This is a fact and a finding of the World Bank. It has happened because of a series of policies and schemes that the PM focused on, including but not limited to PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, PM Awas Yojana, Jal Jeevan Mission, and many other schemes that have helped to achieve it," he added. (ANI)