ERADICATING POVERTY: A JOB NOT FULLY DONE

ERALA has declared itself free of extreme poverty—a bold claim which, if true, marks a major milestone even for a state that takes pride in its human development achievements.

- 

Making the announcement on the state’s formation day, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said his government has spent over ₹1,000 crore to eradicate extreme poverty and called the accomplishment the ‘real Kerala story’. The Congress-led opposition dismissed the claim as bogus, while several experts raised doubts about the exercise’s credibility, citing a lack of transparency in the underlying data. Even the nature of the public event marking the announcement, with actor Mammootty in attendance, made it seem as much a public-relations moment as a policy milestone.