Marking the first anniversary celebrations of its commercial operations, Kochi Metro, the first metro system in the country with an integrated multi modal transport system felicitated the 'super women' of Kudumbashree who had been employed in the Facility Management Department of Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL). Kudumbashree women were honored at the programme held at Edapally Metro Station, Kochi on 17 June 2018. Kudumbashree have been providing a vast array of services from customer relations, crowd management, housekeeping and catering services and became the largest crew of women to be employed by any metro. KMRL, along with Kudumbashree, had included persons from Transgender community in its operations, and thus became the first organization to appoint transgender persons as per the transgender policy of the Kerala Government.

The unique aspect of Kochi Metro itself is the deployment of the members of Kudumbashree, the women empowerment-oriented, community based self help groups for managing the operations at the metro stations. Kudumbashree women had risen above all the perceptions and excelled by their performance and hence elevated themselves into a world class work force. As per the agreement between Kudumbashree and Kochi Metro, all the services ranging from parking management to customer facilitation, from ticketing to housekeeping are entrusted with Kudumbashree. The ‘women metro team’ were selected through a rigorous process. More than 40,000 candidates appeared for the written exam, and the selected ones were called for a personal interview and out of them the women team were chosen. Kudumbashree members or their families were allowed to apply for the same.

Kudumbashree made its first major foray into the facility management market by establishing its own Facility Management Centre targeting at providing facility management services to major public and private sector companies. Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) became its first client. Later it has added Vyttila Mobility, Kerala's largest bus station to the client list. Facility Management Centre has put in place a performance appraisal system in which the employee performance is measured and analysed based on the clients feedback and requirements. It also has mentoring and personal coaching program for employees to improve performance. A proper 'Rewards and Recognition' program was also implemented to keep the best performers motivated and committed to the work. To keep the staff updated with the new trends in the facility management markets, the service of the internal training team is also used to continuously train the staff. The staff are also trained on soft skills and business etiquette to exhibit behavioral discipline on the floor. It also has put in place all the legal and mandatory compliance like Minimum wages Act, ESI and PF provisions etc and also has a valid GST registration. Kudumbashree Facility Management Center has today become of an epicenter for providing employment for women by so providing thousands of women employed with its clients.

Kudumbashree invitied entries for the Photography competition and logo designing competition in connection with the Animal Birth Control programme of Kudumbashree Mission. ' Stray Dog Issue' is the theme for Photography Competition. Those who are interested may take part in the competition by  sending their photographs. The entries should be sent on or before 5 July 2018. An applicant can send only one photograph. Photos should be in jpeg format and should be send to [email protected]

Logos are to be designed for the Suraksha Campaign 2018 campaign, which is being conducted in the state to make the people aware of the Animal Birth Control activities of Kudumbashree.

An applicant can send upto 3 entries. The entries should be of 300 dpi resolution  and 3"x3" size. 5 July 2018 is the last date for receiving logos.The entries should be jpeg format and should be send to [email protected]

Name, address, email id, passport size photo of the applicant, mobile number etc should be attached  alongwith. Rs 10,000 and memento and Rs 5,000  and memento would be given for those who come in first and second places respectively in each competitions.

Entries called for Photography Competition in connection with Animal Birth Control Programme

During this Onam season, a Mall for women by women would be opened in the State. Kudumbashree Mahila Mall, the exclusive mall for women would be launched by Kudumbashree Mission of Kozhikode soon. Kudumbashree Mahila Mall is the  project by the Kozhikode Corporation Kudumbashree, in association with the Kozhikode District Kudumbashree Mission. The mall located at the heart of the city on Wayanad Road would be launched during August 2018. 

The Mall is the initiative of 10 women of unity group under Corporation Kudumbashree CDS. Kudumbashree Mahila Mall would be an opportunity for the women entrepreneurs of Kudumbashree to market their products. With five floors spread over 36,000 sq ft in 54 cent plot, the project would have 60 shops which would give jobs directly and indirectly to at least 300 women. Preference would be given to Kudumbashree workers and space for women’s societies and private ventures. Women would take care of the mall management and the administration. All the staff  of the mall shall be women. The mall will house all kinds of enterprises such as supermarket, food court, kids park, spa, beauty parlour, women’s bank, fancy stores, textiles and readymades, boutiques, footwear, dry cleaning, car washing, opticals, handicrafts, baby care, home appliances and book stall. Besides, there will be conference rooms, training centres and underground car parking facility. A Food  court  would be set up at the roof top which would cater ethnic food items. 

Smt. K Beena, former CDS President, Smt. K. Vijaya, President, Technoworld, and Shri. M.V Ramzi Ismail, Project officer, Corporation Kudumbashree would be the President, Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Mall. The booking for the shops at the mall is progressing. In addition to the trade fairs and temporary markets,there was the need for a more permanent arrangement so everyone would get a market. Mahila Mall would be launched as a solution to that. Through Mahila Mall, Kudumbashree is about to give all Kudumbashree women under one roof.

Kudumbashree Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs)- Shree Krishna NHG from Kottukal Panchayath of Thiruvananthapuram District and Gramalakshmi NHG of Kaipamangalam Panchayath of Thrissur District received the National Awards constituted by National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) for the best performing NHGs from Shri. Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Rural Development, Government of India at the function held at A. P Shinde Hall, Pusa, New Delhi on 11 June 2018. Dr. K.R Shaiju, District Mission Coordinator, Thiruvananthapuram, Shri. Siyad. S, Assistant District Mission Coordinator, Thiruvananthapuramm, Shri. Baiju Muhammed M.A, Assistant District Mission Coordinator, Thrissur, Smt. Mini. A.K, CDS Chairperson, Thrissur, Smt. Prasanna Kumari, CDS Chairperson, Thiruvananthapuram, Smt. Omana Gopi, NHG President, Gramalakshmi NHG,Thrissur, Smt. Najeera, NHG Secretary, Gramalakshmi NHG, Thrissur, Smt. Radhika.O, NHG Secretary, Shree Krishna NHG, Thiruvananthapuram and Smt. Priyanka.V. NHG Member, Shree Krishna NHG, Thiruvananthapuram received the award from the Minister.

The Award was constituted for felicitating the NHGs who had shown outstanding performance. The activities performed during the previous financial year was considered for conferring the awards. The number of NHG meetings called, number of members attended, average attendance of each member, number of members who had attended trainings, total thrift, disbursal of corpus fund, internal lending status, community investment fund availed, corpus fund, total number of bank loans availed, number of units started using the bank loans, annual income, number of entrepreneurs included, scope of the enterprise, income, consistency, number of individual micro enterprises, regularity in keeping register, number of members who have personal bank accounts, ratio of the members who have insurance coverage, ratio of members who have sanitation facility at their homes and the leadership quality were the criteria for conferring the award. As per the guidelines, the respective district missions had submitted selected 3 NHGs from every districts. The selection committee comprising of Shri. S. Harikishore, Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission, Smt. Ramlath, Director, Kudumbashree Mission and Shri. Pramod K.V, Programme Officer, selected the best 3 NHGs out of the 42 NHGs selected by the district and submitted to NRLM and out of those 3 NHGs, Shree Krishna NHG from Kottukal Panchayath of Thiruvananthapuram District and Gramalakshmi NHG of Kaipamangalam Panchayath of Thrissur District bagged the award.

Suraksha 2018, the State Level Animal Birth Control Awareness Campaign to propagate the ABC programme to the grassroot level was launched. Adv.K.Raju, Minister for Animal Husbandry, Forest, Dairy Development and Zoos,Government of Kerala inaugurated the campaign at IMG Hall, Thiruvananthapuram on 11 June 2018.

ABC Programme being implemented by Kudumbashree is the best way for controlling the breeding of dogs. Through the programme, 16,000 dogs across the state had been sterilized so far. Minister said. He also appreciated the efforts taken by Kudumbashree regarding the  Animal Birth Control activities. It is appreciable that Kudumbashree women are earning a life out of the same.  We could achieve self sufficiency in Dairy. It is also aimed to attain self sufficiency in ABC and Kerala Chicken as well. Minister added.

The programme envisages to propagate the awareness  on animal birth control upto the grassroot level. For the success of the programme it needs to be publicized among the common public and elected representatives. The  programme mainly focus on extending training to the existing ABC units, to propagate the details of the programme to more beneficiaries and start new ABC units. Photography Competition on ' Stray Dogs' would be conducted and ward-district level workshops would be conducted alongwith.

Shri. K. Muraleedharan, MLA presided over the function. Shri. S. Harikishore, Executive Director,Kudumbashree, Dr.N.N. Sasi, Director, Animal Husbandry Department and Shri. Binu.I.P, Ward Counsellor, Kunnukuzhy also attended the function. Dr.Nikesh Kiran, Programme  Officer, Animal Husbandry, Kudumbashree welcomed the gathering and Dr.L.Ravikumar, ABC Expert extended vote of thanks.

Kudumbashree Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs) bagged the National Award constituted by National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) for the best performing NHGs. Shree Krishna NHG from Kottukal Panchayath of Thiruvananthapuram District and Gramalakshmi NHG of Kaipamangalam Panchayath of Thrissur District are the NHGs which bagged the  National Award. Shri. Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Rural Development, Government of India will give away the awards at the function ti be held at A. P Shinde Hall, Pusa, Newdelhi on 11 June 2018.

The Award is constituted for felicitating the NHGs who had shown outstanding performance. The activities performed during the previous financial year would be considered for giving the awards. The number of NHG meetings called, number of members attended, average attendance of each member, number of members who had attended trainings, total thrift, disbursal of corpus fund, internal lending status, community investment fund availed, corpus fund, total number of bank loans availed, number of units started using the bank loans, annual income, number of entrepreneurs included, scope of the enterprise, income, consistency, number of individual micro enterprises, regularity in keeping register, number of members who have personal bank accounts, ratio of the members who have insurance coverage, ratio of members who have latrine facility at their homes and the leadership quality were the criteria for deciding the award.

As per the guidelines, the respective district missions had submitted selected 3 NHGs from every districts. The selection committee comprising of  Shri. S. Harikishore, Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission, Smt. Ramlath, Director, Kudumbashree Mission and Shri. Pramod K.V, Programme Officer, selected the best 3 NHGs out of the 42 NHGs selected by the district and submitted to NRLM and out of those 3 NHGs two of them bagged the award.

Kudumbashree Mission have always been concerned about living in tune with Nature. So did the Mission adopted various quality environmental activities while implementing the programmes. While analyzing the business that Kudumbashree had been involved in, one could easily identify the same. Harithakarmasena for recycling the plastic, paper bag making enterprises as an alternative to plastic products, lending of reusable plates and glasses are the few initiatives that Kudumbashree Mission had put forward to fight back plastic pollution. As India is the global host of 2018 World Environment Day with “Beat Plastic Pollution” as the theme for this year’s edition, the world is coming together to combat single-use plastic pollution and so the activities of Kudumbashree has got much relevance.

Haritha Karma sena is a professional team consisting of Green Technicians and Green Supervisors mainly Kudumbashree Women who are assigned with the responsibility of collection, transportation, processing, recycling / disposal, and management of waste materials in association with respective Local Self Government Institutions and Suchithwa Mission. Kudumbashree is planning to give training 22,592 people and had already extended training to 19500 women. The Harithakarmasena had started functioning in 182 Local Self Government Institutions. Harithakarmasena was implemented to minimize the use of plastic and to make people aware of the hazardous effects of plastic, collect and send them for recycling and to decompose the biodegradable waste. A fixed amount was collected from the households and shops as user fee and a carry bag was given to store the wastes. A vacant space in a remote place in the locality was chosen to segregate the wastes. The waste is segregated into different sections based on its features such as H.M White, P.P, H.M, LDPrint, Bajar, Ganny, Bulb, PVC, steel, tubes, bottle, E- waste, LD(Glucose), Bottle caps, Spray bottle etc. A total of 285461 Kg of plastic was shredded and was handed over to Clean Kerala Company for using the same for road tarring process.

Kudumbashree have several Micro Enterprise units who are producing eco friendly products like paper bags, paper pen, paper covers, paper plates, paper files , paper chappals, cloth bags, bamboo products, screw pine product units etc. There are 77 such units working under Kudumbashree Mission. Around 50,000 such products are being sold out a month.During the season time it would increase upto 2 lakhs, which means that Kudumbashree could reduce the use of that much amount of plastic. Kudumbshree also have units which which make paper flowers, jewellery as well and have 12 units which make screw pine products.

There are 6 swap shop units working under Kudumbashree which lend utensils in bulk quantity to reduce the use of plastic and other non bio degradable products. Such Kudumbashree centres help in following the Green Protocol. While conducting trade fairs also, Kudumbashree focus in keeping the same eco friendly and made use of eco friendly products such as bamboo, sacks, jute etc for decorating and used palm products and reusable plates made of fibre, ceramic and steel for serving the food. Kudumbashree members had also been making active participation in fighting against plastic during the pilgrimages like Sabarimala, Malayattoor, Malayalapuzha, Aluva Shivaratri, Attukal etc. Kudumbashree Mission is committed in bring about a positive change in the sector of waste management and are implementing environment friendly programme envisioning a healthier, clean and green world that complements a human generation living in harmony with nature.