Three days after Kerala declared itself 'extreme poverty free', the State government has given evidence that the Extreme Poverty Eradication Project (EPEP) was only a phase in its long and determined battle against extreme poverty, not a historic culmination.

On Tuesday, the Civil Supplies Department issued priority household (pink) cards to 28,300 families in Kerala. Pink cards are for those below the poverty line (annual income below ₹24,200). 

Government sources said that among these, a substantial number are eligible to be included in the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) category of yellow card holders, those poorer than pink card holders, the poorest of the poor.

Elusive yellow card
"We cannot give them yellow cards because Kerala has reached the limit set for yellow cards. So they have been temporarily given the pink card," a senior Civil Supplies Department officer said. At the moment, Kerala has 5,90,174 (over 5.9 lakh) AAY yellow card holders. "We cannot add one more to this," the officer said. 

However, the government has a rank list of pink card holders in ascending order of deprivation; the higher the deprivation, the higher the rank. "If any family/individual in the present AAY list, either through a rise in the standard of living or death, falls out of the AAY category, the family/individual at the top of the priority household list (pink card holders) will move into the AAY category," the officer said.

AAY households are entitled to 35 kg of food grains per household per month. Priority Households or pink card holders, on the other hand, are entitled to 5 kg of food grains per person per month.

Early in 2022, to make room for the genuinely extreme poor in the AAY list, the Civil Supplies Department had launched 'Operation Yellow'. It used the threat of fines to force those illegitimately carrying yellow cards to surrender them. Nearly 1.45 lakh yellow cards were thus retrieved. 

During the EPEP, AAY yellow cards were distributed to 5132 of the 64,006 families identified as extremely poor. Now, Kerala's quota of AAY cards has been fully drained. 

On Tuesday, three days after the 'extreme poverty free' proclamation, pink cards, nearly six times the number (28,300) have been distributed; a good chunk of them to the extreme poor who should ideally be holding a yellow card.

Meaning: There are extreme poor families without an AAY card other than the ones identified during the EPEP.

AAY and extreme poverty
If there is a family entitled to an AAY card, it means just one thing. The family is extremely poor. 

Such a family perfectly fits Kerala government's definition of extreme poor as those who have lost the capability to earn the four basic requirements of land, house, shelter and basic income. 

Here are the categories eligible for AAY yellow cards. One, households headed by widows, terminally ill persons, disabled persons, or elderly persons with no assured means of subsistence or societal support.

Two, widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single woman or single man with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence.

Three, all primitive tribal households. Four, all eligible Below Poverty Line (BPL) families with HIV-positive persons. 

All four are mirror images of the yardsticks Kerala has developed to identify the extremely poor under the EPEP. 

Search for more extreme poor
Realising that the job is not yet done, civil supplies minister G R Anil said on Tuesday that there would be yet another opportunity to apply for pink cards from November 17.

"We believe that 70,000 more families/individuals eligible for yellow or pink cards have still not applied. It could be their lack of awareness of such a facility that had caused this unresponsiveness," the senior official said. 

The EPEP, which culminated in the declaration of extreme poverty eradication, was about reaching out to families and individuals who were not even aware of their rights. By offering yet another chance to apply for ration cards, the government is conceding that there still remain hundreds whose innocence of government schemes continues to deprive them of basic entitlements.

The civil supplies minister acknowledged this much. "There is a chance that there would be a rare family without a ration card. I admit it," he said while inaugurating the distribution of the 28,300 priority household ration cards in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. 

He said he had followed up on a Malayala Manorama report about such a family in Palakkad. "I immediately gave instructions to visit the family," he said.