Kerala’s costly celebration: Poverty eradication funds redirected for grand announcement

The Kerala government is spending Rs 1.5 crore to announce the declaration of Kerala as an Extreme Poverty-Free State. At the public event in Thiruvananthapuram, where the announcement will be made today, the government has also arranged a music concert. The government had invited celebrities such as Mammootty, Mohanlal, and Kamal Haasan for the public event, though Mohanlal and Kamal Haasan will not be attending.

Interestingly, a government order issued on October 26 allocating Rs 1.5 crore for the announcement of the eradication of extreme poverty also mentions an additional Rs 51.3 crore for ensuring safe housing for extremely poor families.

However, according to the original administrative sanction on August 29, Rs 52.8 crore had been earmarked for housing support. By the latter order, Rs 1.5 crore was redirected for the grand announcement event.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made the formal declaration in a special session of the Kerala Legislative Assembly, stating that the state had achieved the feat of becoming the first in the country to eradicate extreme poverty.

Announcing it in the Assembly, the Chief Minister said that Kerala is witnessing the dawn of a new era. The Opposition, meanwhile, boycotted the special session, alleging that the declaration of extreme poverty eradication is a fraud.

Notably, in 2021, after Pinarayi Vijayan returned to power, the first decision taken by his new cabinet was to make Kerala free of extreme poverty. The government claims it subsequently identified 64,006 extremely poor families through a comprehensive survey. For each family, a micro-plan was prepared to ensure targeted support and services tailored to their needs.

Do the numbers add up?

The Local Self-Government Department (LSGD) led the initiative. Among the 64,006 families, 4,421 (mostly single-member households) have since passed away. Despite extensive verification and outreach, 261 families—mostly nomadic or migrant—could not be traced.

There were also 47 cases where different members of the same family appeared separately on lists under different local bodies, for which a single consolidated micro-plan has now been prepared. Excluding these 4,729 families, the remaining 59,277 families were officially listed as extremely poor. The government now claims that all of them have been lifted out of extreme poverty.

The Opposition, however, has accused the government of falsifying data, citing a written reply submitted in the Assembly. In response to a question on how many people under the extreme poverty category possess ration cards, the government had stated that there are over five lakh Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) cards in the state. The reply also mentioned that new applications are still being accepted from those belonging to the extreme poverty category.

The Opposition used a written reply from Minister G.R. Anil to question the government’s claim. According to the government’s response tabled in the Assembly, Kerala has 5,91,194 AAY ration cards. The minister had informed the Assembly on September 30 that new applications for ration cards for the extremely poor were still being accepted.

These figures were part of the government’s reply to a question raised by Shoranur MLA P. Mammikutty on September 30. The reply also stated that Palakkad district alone had 49,530 families with ration cards under the extreme poverty category.