The Kudumbashree Mission’s astounding success in Ernakulam district in training women in construction work has prompted the mission to replicate the practice across the State.
As part of the initiative, units of women masons will be formed in all 14 districts.
Women masons from Ernakulam successfully completed work on housing units in Palakkad. They also finished work on 68 housing units at Edakkattuvayala in the district. The housing units were part of a project of the Department of Scheduled Caste Welfare.
“The mission aims at turning each group of masons, comprising 30 women, into micro enterprises to take up work on their own,” Kudumbashree Director S. Harikishore said here on Monday.
He added that the groups had been mobilised in all districts. Moreover, agreements will be signed with them soon to formalise the formation of groups. Mr. Harikishore was speaking at a workshop organised under the aegis of the National Housing Bank, which had convened a meeting of bankers and beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awaz Yojana on credit-linked subsidy scheme.
The Kudumbashree Mission is the nodal agency for the programme in Kerala. The mission has identified as many as 30,000 beneficiaries of whom 20,000 are ready to apply for the credit-linked subsidy scheme. As many as 138 people have already availed loans under the programme.
National Housing Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sriram Kalyanaraman said the repayment status in the housing finance sector was robust, which would encourage bankers. Mr. Harikishore said Kudumbashree was addressing the issue of housing shortage in various ways, including a programme for slum development.
