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The street cobblers of the town, who are the part and parcel of the daily lives of the public were invisible as like the road side dwellers till then. They used to stitch,glue and polish the damaged footwear and made it good as new. Even in the midst of summer, they had to sit on the road side to earn their daily bread. Kudumbashree Wayanad District Mission and Mananthavady Municipality has now arranged them a proper and comfortable work space.

The twelve cobblers had been working near the Mananthavady block office road side for many years and had suffered several hardships due to the inconsistency of their damaged shelter. Even though they had raised their voice for about a decade, nothing had happened. They have had identity cards, but weren't able to work properly. But now, Mananthavady Municipality as part of National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) rehabilitated the cobblers with the support of Kudumbashree Wayanad District Mission.The National Urban Livelihood Mission aims at solving the concerns of urban street vendors and gives them suitable spaces for a good work environment.

The rehabilitation was done in three phases. In the first phase, the group of twelve cobblers was organised by Kudumbashree Wayanad District Mission through the Prathyasha Scheme and were given economic assistance. The activities to ensure suitable hygienic space for them was also started. They were given unified shelter to work properly. Rs 3 lakhs was provided to each group, which they do not have to pay back. Kudumbashree Mission is the nodal agency for implementing the activities of NULM activities in Kerala.

Kudumbashree Alappuzha District Mission conducted, 'Orukkam', the drama camp of Balasabha students in connection with Thakazhi Sahithyolsavam at Thakazhy Smarakam, Thakazhy, Alappuzha on 17 April 2019. The drama camp was of 8 days duration. During the camp, the Balasabha children were trained by the eminent personalities from the drama industry. 'Vellappokkathil' drama, based on the short story written by Shri.Thakazhi Shivasankara Pillai was performed by the Balasabha students at the camp. Twenty seven Balasabha students became part of the drama. Shri. Pramod Payyanur, Shri. C.J.Kuttappan, eminent drama-movie directors interacted with the Balasabha children.

The Drama Camp was organised by Kudumbashree Alappuzha District Mission associating with Thakazhy CDS. Thakazhi Sahithyolsavam is organised every year to commemorate Shri.Thakazhi Shivasankara Pillai, the eminent novelist and short story writer of Malayalam literature, who wrote over 30 novels and novellas and over 600 short stories focusing on the lives of the oppressed classes.The drama camp was indeed a new experience for the Balasabha students.

As part of the Gender development programmes of Kudumbashree Idukki District Mission, a new initiative named ‘ Grameena Vijnana Kendram is started at Vattavada with the ownership of Vattavada panchayath. The centre was inaugurated on 9 March 2019. The aim of the project is to start knowledge centres in the rural areas of the district. The uniqueness of the program is that the centre has the facility to conduct live online classes where teachers from any part of the world can take classes and interact with the students in the centre with the help of ‘tele classroom’ facility'.

The project is implemented as a common venture of Kudumbashree Gender Self Learning Programme under the ownership of Vattavada panchayath. Edyonet is the technology and teaching resource provider of the center. They provided the infrastructure, technical support and software for the functioning of the program. Kudumbashree Idukki District Mission, CDS, LSGD, EDYONET – Infopark, Grameen vidhya foundation are the stakeholders of the centre.

A visit to Vattavada by the District Programme Manager who is in charge of Gender and the Snehitha staff noticed that as many issues are prevailing in the area. Vattavada, being a remote village, faces the issues of lack of transport facilities, lack of educational facilities and financial difficulties. Education opens the door to the multiple possibilities/ opportunities across the world. The enquiry on how it would be possible to make services of experts available to different parts of the state resulted in the community education program through tele classroom. Kudumbashree in collaboration with EDYONET IT started a free online PSC coaching as the first step of the program. Around 60 students from Vattavada and 30 students from Devikulam Panchayath gets benefited through this coaching service. Weekly 3 hour online classes are provided to the students. This PSC coaching and spoken English class was started under the Vattavada GRC. Eminent teachers are giving classes through video conference. Now the students can receive classes from eminent faculties from anywhere without spending money for it. As it is live online classes, they can conduct discussions and clear their doubts as well. This technology is useful in multiple ways for the center in future.

The centre aims at organizing various programmes utilizing the possibilities of information technology and reach out diverse education opportunities to the socio economical and geographically marginalised spaces. The class are being conducted from the public teaching facility at Ernakulam. The subject experts will conduct the classes according to the convenience of students via specially arranged tele classroom that includes a projector, camera and speaker system. The students will be able to watch the classes in 50 “ television and interact through the system specifically designed for the purpose. The sessions for the registered students will be made available in the software and the classes will be provided according to the need. The gender resource person of the Kudumbashree Gender resource center in the Vattavada panchayath has the responsibility of co coordinating the program. It will emerge as a revolution in distance education.

Kudumbashree Mission is partnering with DEO's of Kerala to provide various services during Lok Sabha Elections during April 2019. Kudumbashree Mission has been entrusted by the various DEO's in Kerala for various activities such as providing food in training centres, for arranging food for polling officials, printing and data entry works, Harithakarmasena for maintaining green protocol etc. Rangashree, the community theatre group of Kudumbashree Mission had already started working partnering with the office of Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala for conducting the SVEEP (Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation System) activities for Election to Lok Sabha.

The Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation System (SVEEP) was implemented for ensuring that maximum number of voters are using their right to vote. Under this programme, Street plays are conducted by the Rangashree teams of Kudumbashree Mission in selected spots in the districts. The street play stressed on the importance of casting vote, It also reminds that voting right is not only men's right, but also women's as well. It also give awareness on how to add name in the voter's list, how to vote, the identity proofs for casting vote, how to correct the errors in the voting list and how to add name to the voting list online through Akshaya centres. The street plays also educate the public, not to cast vote to someone upon anyone's pressure. Along with the street play, voting machine and VVPAT is also being introduced to the public.

Workshop on Emergency Preparedness Plan (EPP) for Kudumbashree was held at Hotel Fortune South Park and Kudumbashree State Mission office on 26-27 March 2019. The Emergency Preparedness Plan Workshop was organised associating with 'Save the Children', a global non-profit organisation which was founded in 1919 and is India's leading independent child rights NGO, which run programmes in the remotest corners of India and urban areas to provide quality education and healthcare, protection from harm and abuse and life-saving aid during emergencies to children. 

Concept of hazard, risk, vulnerability and disaster, understanding humanitarian crises and its response frame used, understanding risk monitoring and risk analysis process, different standards (Core Humanitarian Standard, Sphere standards etc.) of emergency response, conceptual framework and understanding of organizational emergency preparedness and conceptualization of a stander planning template of organizational preparedness were discussed  during the 1.5 day's workshop. Assistant District Mission Coordinators, Resource Persons, District Programme Managers from Social Development  team and  the State Mission team actively participated in the programme.

EPP would an integral part of Kudumbashree Mission because of its reach and the capacities with the organisation where women and children can be the first respondents at the time of crisis and also contribute largely to reducing the magnitude and scale of disasters. Kudumbashree Mission and 'Save the Children' NGO had signed an agreement to reach out to 10,000 families from the most marginalized sections, to recover the losses due to the unprecedented floods and landslides across Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Wayanad districts during the Kerala floods in August 2018.

Balasabha students from Kasaragod district of Kerala had actively participated in the Jalasabha activities. The Balasabha students gathered on the banks of Chemmanad Kadav of Chandragiri river and became part of the cleaning process for conserving the water. It is as part of the 'Jalamaanu Jeevan' (Water is life) programme, that the Balasabha students gathered together to clean the banks of Chandragiri river. The students removed the accumulated plastic and other wastes in the banks of Chandragiri river. Shri. T.T Surendran, District Mission Coordinator, Kudumbashree Kasargode District Mission gave leadership for the programme. 

Kudumbashree Mission had  joined hands with Harithakerala Mission for launching Jalasabha in neighbourhood groups with an aim of fighting against water scarcity. Awareness classes are organised in all NHGs as part of the Jalasabha programme. As World Water Day was observed on 22 March, special NHG meetings were conducted as part of the Jalasabha programme  in all NHGs in the state during 22 March- 31 March 2019. As part of the programme, discussions and activities were arranged, based on the pamphlets prepared on the topic 'Water is life'. The pamphlets had drawings and text which gave suggestions on how to conserve water during water scarcity.  The pamphlets also gave idea on how to make rain pits and how to do well recharging effectively. A total of 1,43,000 pamphlets have been circulated among  all the Balasabhas in the state. After the analysis and study a detailed report on the cleaning process would be handed over to Kudumbashree Mission and Harithakerala Mission.

Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme has been started at Snehitha Gender Help Desk of Thrissur. The programme is launched in convergence with Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), an autonomous and non-profit institute for entrepreneurship development. Women entrepreneurship development programme for Snehitha beneficiaries is a course of 6-8 weeks duration based on the essentials of conceiving, planning, initiating and launching an economic activity or an enterprise successfully. 

The content of the Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme  include class room training on essentials of entrepreneurship, survey of the prevalent socio - economic scenario, identification of business opportunities, role and function as well as schemes of assistance offered by various constituents of the support system, preparation of a technically feasible and economically viable project report, achievement Motivation Training and also the nuances of management of an enterprise, sessions on technology and finance are also arranged, depending upon the nature of project selected and field visits- different micro enterprises run by women entrepreneurs.  

From the case analysis report of Snehitha gender help desk, Thrissur during 2017-18 it was identified that about 69% of the women were unemployed and having educational status of above matriculation.  In most of the domestic violence cases it is the lack of income for women that makes the situation worse. In some cases the women are not even willing to go for legal action due to the fear of losing the maintenance of children from husband.  In order to overcome the situation, Snehitha Gender Help Desk of  Thrissur took an initiative to start a women entrepreneurship development Programme with an objective of 'Making women financially literate and equip them to start  a micro enterprise according to their area of interest.  
 
The course was started on 19 December 2018. Twenty five beneficiaries of Snehitha are benefited out of the programme. The selection was on the basis of a need assessment report of the registered cases in Snehitha Gender Help Desk. From the need assessment report, 32 women having interest to start an entrepreneurship were identified. An interview was conducted and  25 candidates were selected for the course having graduation and a base in the field of science and technology. The sessions were handled by experts from business and banking field. The participants were actively involved in the discussions and shared their experiences. After the successful completion of the course all the candidates got a certificate which would be useful for them to get Mudra loan, loan from employment exchange,  Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) Loan etc to start an entrepreneurship. The course was completed on 24 January 2019. 

The programme was highly beneficial for the participants it helped them to improve their self-confidence and feeling of become self-reliant. Presently the participants were planning to start a new micro enterprise like Photostat and printing press, women’s ware with tailoring unit etc. individually or as a team from the Experience and encouragement of this training programme. As the first season of the Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme was a success, it is planned to start the next batch immediately as possible.