After Kottayam, Kerala Govt Goes All Out To Bring 8 More Districts To Zero Poverty Level

Kerala is making news, not because of Shashi Tharoor or Arundhati Roy but the effort the State made to eliminate poverty through progressive measures and improving human quality of life. India’s recent first ever Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) of NITI Aayog has revealed that Kottayam District in Kerala has no poor residents. District Magistrate PK Jayasree of Kottayam said “Kerala has eight more districts Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Thrissur, Kannur, Palakkad, Alappuzha, Kollam, and Pathanamthitta which are below 1% poverty line, efforts are on to make it to the level of 0 % poverty in the next financial year.” The District Magistrate is now introducing ISO standardisation at Kottayam Collectorate followed by other government offices in Kottayam’s District Headquarter. Political observers say, “It is a reflection of the Left Government’s unwavering commitment towards social welfare and initiating updated standardisation which makes it stand out against the rest.” Kerala’s national average of poverty index stands at 25.01%, whereas Kerala, Puducherry and Goa have stable poverty levels, while the worst performers today are UP, MP, Jharkhand and Bihar. NITI Aayog’s MPI index has three quality parameters spread between health, education and standards of living conditions which comprise cooking facilities, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, living conditions, assets and bank accounts. India’s MPI measures use globally accepted robust methodology by the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative.