By : Satyaki Paul
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) election manifesto and the pervious budget contained an agenda to ease the burden of the housewives. This scheme shall be introduced by the Kerala State Financial Enterprises (KSFE) through Smart Kitchen Project wherein small soft funds will be provided to the housewives to purchase household products such as washing machines, grinders, refrigerators, etc. The aim is to ensure that each and every household is equipped with modern products for usage of the women members of a particular family.
The interests of the loan would be divided among the beneficiary, local self-government body and the state government. To implement the scheme, smart kitchen chit fundswill be created under the Kerala State Financial Enterprise (KSFE).
TheLeft Democratic Front (LDF) government trusts that for better participation of women in labour, the burden on household chores has to be reduced. Thus, by augmentingmechanizationof kitchens and household related products, women participation in labour could be amplified.
The Kerala Legislative Assembly was clean swiped by the LDF party. Thus, after assuming office for the second term, the present LDF government with Pinarayi Vijayan as the Chief Minister has constituted a high-level team to work out the modalities of employing the smart kitchen scheme in the ground level.In this context, the members of Kudumbashree, would receive special preference in purchasing kitchen gadgets under this smart kitchen scheme. This is due to the reason that individuals associated with Kudumbashree has a better history of loan repayment capability. Thus, the Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC’s) will be further inclined in giving loans to individuals who are already attached to Kudumbashree. The author works as a Ph.D. Research Scholar at the Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta, and the co-author of the book Anthropology For All (2021).