Is Kerala's extreme poverty eradication a hoax?

64,006 families were identified as extreme poor in Kerala. On November 1, the Kerala government proclaimed that all of them were freed from extreme poverty. The Opposition UDF has called it a hoax. Left-leaning social scientists and economists, too, are suspicious.

Fact is, a massive participatory process to identify the extreme poor and prepare customised plans to alleviate their condition did take place in right earnest across Kerala. But Extreme Poverty Eradication Project (EPEP) is not unique. It is just the latest in a series of benevolent extreme poverty alleviation schemes launched by successive governments.

Producer: Ayyappan R
Editor: Nithin Paul