Even as the debate over the Kerala model vs. Gujarat model is still raging, a six-member team from Gujarat is here to study the Kudumbasree Mission and its successful convergence with the panchayati raj system.
The team comprises two district level managers and four assistant programme managers of Mission Mangalam, an integrated, female-oriented, poverty alleviation project launched by the then Narendra Modi government in 2010 on the occasion of the golden jubilee year celebration of Gujarat State.
“We are functioning under a different model. We have leant about the Kudumbasree Mission and its integration with the panchayati raj system. We are here to learn how the system works here,” said Chandrakant Makwana, district level manager.
While the Kudumbasree Mission, started 12 years earlier in Kerala, works through the Self Help Groups (SHGs) linked to the panachayati raj institutions, its counterpart in Gujarat functions by leveraging upon industry partnerships and corporate MoUs, thus integrating women SHGs called Sakhi Mandals and their federations into the value chain of investors. Already, more than 24 lakh women are actively involved in the movement under the two lakh Sakhi Mandals.
While Kudumbasree envisages “eradication of absolute poverty through concerted community action under leadership of local governments by facilitating organisation of the poor for combining self help with demand led convergence of available services and resources to tackle poverty holistically,” the Gujarat model leverages industry partnerships with the aim of ‘improving demand and quality of rural products, creating markets for these products in the urban segment, exploiting modern technology and process in the production of rural products; linking local initiatives to international markets and mass empowerment the rural women and women’s groups through ownership of assets.”
According to A.G. Manu, project consultant, Kudumbasree, the team on Thursday visited Vazhoor grama panchayat.
