On November 1, Kerala will declare itself “the first state in the country to eradicate extreme poverty”. The declaration comes at the end of four years of a targeted welfare push led by local bodies under the state government’s Extreme Poverty Eradication Programme (EPEP).

In 2021, at the end of a state-level survey, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front government identified 59,000 families across the state as “extremely poor”. Over the next four years, micro plans, tailored for each family, were executed through local self governing bodies in the state.

Among the beneficiaries is Sathyavathi. A chronic heart patient, Sathyavathi lived alone in Kuttiattoor panchayat in Kerala’s Kannur district and had been struggling to pay for her monthly medication. But since 2024, a box with medicines

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