Jharkhand Governor felicitates 625 women graduating out of extreme poverty
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In Jharkhand, India, a programme adopting the ultra-poor graduation approach evaluated in 2011-13 by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, co-founders and co-directors of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, has successfully graduated a second cohort of women out of extreme poverty, according to Indian institute, the Nudge Institute. In Jharkhand, the programme works closely with women from poorest of the poor households, especially those belonging to particularly vulnerable tribal groups, to build durable and resilient livelihoods. The ultra-poor graduation approach is a 'big push' intervention that aims to address multiple poverty challenges simultaneously and was found by researchers to boost livelihoods, income and health among the ultra-poor. The centrepiece of the programme is providing households with an asset to spur self-employment.
The Nudge Institute today announced the graduation of 625 households from 41 villages in 6 blocks of Latehar and Gumla districts as part of their implementation program to graduate households out of extreme poverty in Jharkhand. This program works closely with ‘didis’ or women from poorest of the poor households, especially those belonging to particularly vulnerable tribal groups, to support them in breaking out of cyclical poverty by building durable and resilient livelihoods, ensuring food security, enabling access to government entitlements and active participation in social and financial institutions.
The graduation ceremony held at Aryabhatta Auditorium, Ranchi University was attended by C.P. Radhakrishnan, Governor of Jharkhand, Ipsita Thakur, Sr. Associate Director, Corporate Citizenships, KPMG and other top officials.
Governor CP Radhakrishnan who was the Chief Guest, felicitated the didis. He said, “It is also important to partner with the government to implement any program at scale and also to ensure last-mile delivery. Over a period of time, The Nudge Institute has successfully done this and is working in Rajasthan, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Karnataka, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Punjab. In all these states, it is closely working with the State Rural Livelihood Missions, DAY-NRLM of the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment of the Government of India. In 2024, The Nudge Institute aims to work with Two Lakh rural ultra-poor families in the country.”
Started in Jharkhand in 2018, to enable the poorest of poor families to progress out of poverty through empowering the women, this is the second cohort graduating from the program. The first cohort of 400 didis graduated in December 2022. The/Nudge Institute contextualized the ‘Graduation approach’ to Jharkhand’s context in the districts of Lohardaga, Latehar and Gumla. The Graduation approach’s efficacy is reflected in the evaluation published by Nobel Laureates Dr Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. The/Nudge has expanded its direct implementation now to Rajasthan and Karnataka with support of philanthropic donors to learn and continuously improve the program design.