Kerala's poverty eradication drive helps family trace missing member

Thiruvananthapuram: The extreme poverty eradication drive of Kerala government not only helped a blind couple in Kerala's Idukki district come out of extreme poverty, but also helped in tracing a family member missing over the last 27 years.

Visually challenged couple Shy and Sunitha hailing from Kumaramangalam in Idukki district, were among the 64,006 families identified to be in extreme poverty condition.

The couple were eking out a living by street-singing and were struggling to meet the education needs of their college going daughter. Since they did not have an own home, the Kumaramangalam panchayat started efforts in 2023 to provide home under the state government's LIFE mission housing scheme.

Shy was entitled to get four cents of ancestral property, provided all his siblings gave the consent. However, one of his brothers has been missing since the last 27 years. His consent was required as the registration authorities cited that there was no document like any man-missing case to prove that the person was missing or could be assumed to have died.

"We were totally in the dark about his whereabouts. But a relative of the missing person took the initiative in tracing him. He managed to trace a close friend of the missing person through social media. Through him we could get in touch with the missing person," recollects Kumaramangalam panchayat president Gracy Thomas.

Shy's brother was traced from Tamil Nadu, where he was settled. He willingly came down and gave the consent for giving the land to Shy, but wanted to ensure confidentiality due to personal reasons. The house construction is now in the finishing stages.

"It was with the panchayat's initiative that we got the ancestral property and our dream of having a home is becoming true," Shy told DH.

Kerala will be declared as an extreme poverty free state by November 1 as almost all the 64,006 families found to be struggling for food, shelter and medical aid were brought under the purview of government support schemes.

Most of the families were not having any valid documents and hence were unable to avail any welfare schemes. Now they are issued any of the valid documents like Aadhaar and electoral identity card and thereby brought under the government's support schemes.