Overview
- Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced the status on November 1, marking the culmination of the 2021–2025 Extreme Poverty Eradication Project.
- The programme surveyed more than 100,000 families and used a four-pillar assessment of food, housing, healthcare and livelihoods to finalize a verified list of 64,006 households.
- Interventions converged state and central schemes, providing housing and repairs, land titles, healthcare access, identity documents, MGNREGA jobs, food assistance and livelihood support.
- The state has not published the full verification methodology or third-party audit findings, prompting demands for transparency and an Opposition boycott of the Assembly session that marked the claim.
- Union AAY data still lists nearly six lakh Kerala households as “poorest of the poor” and reports cite over one lakh Adivasi families outside EPEP’s coverage, with analysts warning of relapse risks tied to youth unemployment, remittance dependence and rising costs.