(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The course is exclusively for Kudumbashree workers.From collecting wastes from houses to smart class rooms may be a far cry but that is exactly what a collective of poor women in the southern state of Kerala has accomplished in just 16 years.
Kudumbashree which wrested international attention for empowering women by fighting poverty is set to enter higher education sector by establishing four community colleges in the fields of development veterinary and agriculture automobile and construction and general administration.
The first college offering one-year post graduate diploma course in development praxis in collaboration with the Tata Institute for Social Sciences (TISS) will be launched on the occasion of the 16th annual meet of the poverty eradication agency on Thursday.
The course is exclusively for Kudumbashree workers. Women who have an experience of five years in Kudumbashree are eligible for the admission. The development practices of Kudumbashree will be the highlight of the two-semester course to be conducted at the TISS centre and in the state.
The second proposed community college is being established with the technical support of the Kerala Veterinary and Agricultural University. The college would offer short term courses on the basics of agriculture pest control and dairy farming.
Agriculture is a major activity of the Kudumbashree which is cultivating 60000 acres of uncultivated land now through group farming. The farming activity involving 260000 workers has injected a new life into the stagnant agriculture sector in the state.
Kudumbashree is making a foray into the education sector after making its presence felt in almost all sectors including high skilled information technology (IT). It was launched in 1998 as a community network that would work in tandem with local self governments for poverty eradication and women empowerment.
The agency which started its activity by undertaking waste disposal in urban areas now touches every sphere of Keralites’ life through 26480 individual enterprises and 6300 group enterprises in diverse fields.
In the brief span of 16 years Kudumbashree has emerged as one of the largest women empowerment projects not only in Kerala but in India as a whole. It has now nearly five million members covering more than 50 per cent of the households in the state.
Various national and international agencies have lauded Kudumbashree for achieving the twin goals of empowering women and checking poverty. In 2002 it was recognised by the United Nations Development Programme as one of the 20 best practices in India in governance. In 2006 it won the India Innovation Award for the Social Innovations.
The 16th annual meet to be inaugurated by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on August 12 will showcase the milestones achieved by Kudumbashree and chart its future course.
Social activists Farah Naqvi Vandana Shiva and Sunitha Krishnan literacy worker K V Rabiya senior journalist P Sainath poet and activist Sugathakumari Mani Shankar Aiyar MP and legal expert N R Madhava Menon will speak on various topics during the three-day programme.
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