Kerala Chief Minister Declares State Free of Extreme Poverty; Opposition Calls It "Pure Fraud"

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday formally declared in the state assembly that Kerala has eradicated extreme poverty, claiming that the state has become the first in India to achieve this milestone.

The announcement was made during a special session of the assembly on November 1, marking the anniversary of Kerala’s formation day. The declaration follows the successful completion of the Extreme Poverty Alleviation Project, launched by the state government in 2021 with the goal of eliminating extreme poverty within four years.

Under the project, 64,006 families were identified as “extremely poor” based on a detailed survey and were provided targeted assistance to improve their living conditions. These families received support in areas such as housing, healthcare, nutrition, and livelihood.

According to M. B. Rajesh, Minister for Local Self-Governments, the initiative was conceptualised after a NITI Aayog study found Kerala to have the lowest poverty rate in the country at 0.7 per cent.

Explaining the approach adopted by the government, Rajesh said during a press conference on 22 October, “We understood that it was important to reach out to this population, however small it is, and meet their needs as part of a dedicated programme. Ground-level surveys were done in the first phase to identify such families based on indicators like access to food, health, housing and livelihood.” He added that the surveys identified 1,03,099 individuals from 64,006 families as extremely poor.

However, the announcement sparked strong opposition from the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), which dismissed the government’s claims as “pure fraud”. Members of the opposition staged a walkout from the assembly in protest.

V. D. Satheesan, Leader of the Opposition, criticised the declaration, saying it was both misleading and in violation of assembly norms. “The statement made by the Chief Minister is pure fraud and in contempt of House rules. So, we cannot join in that and are completely boycotting the session,” Satheesan said.

Responding to the walkout, Chief Minister Vijayan hit back at the opposition, saying the government’s actions speak for themselves. “By ‘fraud’, the UDF is referring to its own behaviour. We only say what we can implement. We have implemented what we had said. That is our reply to the opposition leader,” he said. The government maintains that the project’s completion marks a historic social milestone for Kerala.​