A MILESTONE AND SOME DUST ON IT

Kerala claims it has eradicated extreme poverty, but Pinarayi's welfare attire isn't all stain-free

- By Jeemon Jacob

TOTAL LITERACY BACK IN 1991, FAMOUSLY. After 34 years, on its foundation day of November 1, Kerala marked the next pioneer's milestone: total eradication of extreme poverty. At least, that claim has been formally made by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who called it a “historic moment” that embellished Kerala’s repute as a “caring state”. With his Left-led government due to test the strength of its two-term incumbency in assembly polls next year, such a claim was not about to go without furious contestation. As pro-regime voices battle a sceptical chorus—not limited to the Opposition—the surrounding context also offered a more complex picture.

It was in 2021 that the state set freedom from extreme poverty as an absolute goal.

Not that Kerala had much. In 2023, the NITI Aayog pegged it at 0.55 per cent of the state’s 33.34 million population. Kerala’s own survey yielded about 80,000 short of that: a total of 103,099 people from 64,006 families, spread over 1,032 local self-government (LSG) bodies.

FOR THE ‘LAST ONES’