CM declares Kerala 'extreme poverty' free, Opposition calls it a hoax, boycotts event

In the absence of the Opposition UDF who walked out calling it a fraud, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stood in the Kerala Assembly on November 1, united Kerala's 69th birthday, and declared: "Kerala is now an extreme poverty free state". 

"We are presenting yet another model before the country. Kerala is the lab for various kinds of welfare activities. We hope that our experiments to root out extreme poverty, too, would be an example for other states to follow," the Chief Minister said, reading out from the text of a resolution made under Rule 300 of the Assembly. 

Before the CM got up to make his statement, the UDF  declared a boycott. "The claim that Kerala is free of extreme poverty is a big fraud. We cannot be party to this fraud. So we are boycotting the day's proceedings," Opposition Leader V D Satheeshan said and led the walk out.

Another reason he cited for not cooperating was that the UDF was still in agitation mode in the Sabarimala loot issue. "Since the last Assembly session, we have been campaigning both inside and outside the Assembly for the resignation of the devaswom minister and the dissolution of the Travancore Devaswom Board. We cannot cooperate," Satheesan said. He also questioned the sanctity of a statement in the Assembly when the entire details of the project were already out in the public domain. 

In response, the CM wondered: "It beats me why the Opposition is so rattled. Since this is a historic achievement, we thought it fitting to officially let the world know of it through the Legislative Assembly." 

Further, he also said that during his last press conference (September 27), when he made a mention of the Extreme Poverty Eradication Project, there was one more family left to be rehabilitated for the project to reach full realisation. 

The CM's resolution said that the decision to eradicate extreme poverty was taken at the first Cabinet meeting of the 2021 LDF ministry. "This was a major promise given to voters during the election campaign," he said. The work to identify the extreme poor began within two months. "It began by ensuring the participation of people from all walks of life and collecting their feedback on how to go about the process," the CM said.

Eventually, after multiple stages of filtering, 1,03,099 (one lakh three thousand and ninety nine) individuals in 64,006 families spread over 1032 local bodies were declared as extreme poor. 

"Food, health, shelter and income were considered as the stress factors to identify the extreme poor," the CM said. During the 2023-24 and 2024-25 fiscals, the project was sanctioned Rs 50 crore each. In 2025-26, Rs 60 cr has been set aside. "The money was spent mainly on health, housing and creating livelihood options," he said. In total, Kerala has spent Rs 1000 for the extreme poverty eradication mission.

To provide a sense of the grandness of the achievement, the CM cited the study conducted by the Centre for Development Studies for the Economic and Social Affairs Department of the United Nations in 1975. The study, which was hugely disputed then, showed  than in 1961-62, 90.75 per cent and 88.89 per cent of people in Kerala were below poverty line in the urban and rural areas respectively. "It is from there that Kerala has now emerged as the first Indian state to eradicate extreme poverty," the CM said. 

According to NITI Aayog estimates, in 2022-23, 0.48 per cent of Kerala's population lived below the poverty line as per the multidimensional poverty index. The national average was 11.28 per cent. 

Meaning, in 2022-23, 1,64,640 people lived below the poverty line in Kerala. In 2025, NITI Aayog says 1,72,800 people live below the poverty line. "The 1,03,099 individuals in 64,006 families we have identified as extremely poor fall in this NITI Aayog list," the CM said.  

He said that 28 acres of land were acquired under a special drive to construct houses for 4677 families and to provide land and housing to 2713 families. Of the 28 acres, 2.03 were donated by people under the 'Manassodithiri Mannu' (Land from the Heart) scheme. 

Pinarayi said that the declaration was not the end but the beginning. 

"We will make sure that extreme poverty will not rear its head," he said, and added, "This achievement has demonstrated that nothing is impossible if people rise up as one and advance with dedication."