How Kerala Is Charting a Path to Be Extreme-Poverty-Free

State on track to becoming the first in India to achieve the goal through local-level surveys, community and tailored micro plans. A M Droupathi Mahalakshmi tracks the development

- A M Droupathi Mahalakshmi

Come November 2025, Kerala is preparing to officially declare itself as the first Indian state to eradicate extreme poverty. This milestone of 100 per cent extreme poverty alleviation follows the launch of the state's comprehensive Extreme Poverty Eradication Programme (EPEP) in 2021.

M.B. Rajesh, Kerala's minister for local self-governments, told Business Standard that the EPEP has so far succeeded in uplifting 93 per cent of the 64,006 families identified as extremely poor.

"The Athidardrya Nirmarjana Project, or EPEP, was started to uplift the population who are outside the support system of the government. In the initial phase, we identified the population for shortlisting beneficiaries. The final shortlisting gave us 64,006 families for whom we had to plan a comprehensive project," he said.

According to think tank NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2023, Kerala tops the list of states with the lowest multidimensional poverty headcount ratio at just 0.55 per cent. Other leading states include Goa (0.84 per cent), Tamil Nadu (2.20 per cent), Sikkim (2.60 per cent), and Punjab (4.75 per cent).

What's different in Kerala's EPEP?

Kerala's approach to eradicating extreme poverty stands out for its adoption of the MPI framework, which incorporates factors such as food, shelter, health, and income that can help sustainable family growth in the long term. "Rather than relying on abstract poverty lines, the government deployed local-level surveys through Kudumbashree and panchayats to identify households in extreme deprivation," said Yadul Krishna, a policy economist.