South Central 50: Kerala ends extreme poverty, Zohran Mamdani’s win

Kerala has announced that it has “eradicated extreme poverty”, a claim that has drawn admiration, scepticism and everything in between. On South Central, hosts Dhanya Rajendran and Anisha Sheth speak to IAS officer Anupama TV, Special Secretary of the Local Self Government Department, and Professor Freddy Thomas from Bengaluru’s Christ University to understand how the state pulled it off.

Anupama explains that the state identified extreme poverty based on “four distress factors: safe shelter, income, food and healthcare”. Families were assessed through a “participatory process” led by local bodies. 

“The initial list was scrutinised by the Gram Sabha, with enumeration and a 20 percent super check,” she says. The key difference, she emphasises, was that each family received a micro plan. “It was not one scheme for everyone. For each family, whichever interventions were needed – health, housing, livelihood – all were included.”

Freddy notes that this approach was “bottom-up and decentralised,” rooted in Kerala’s history of grassroots democracy. He says Kerala treats welfare not as a handout but as a “safety trampoline”, enabling people to rebuild their lives rather than stay dependent. However, he says the programme now needs “sustained monitoring and transparency” especially amid concerns that some tribal communities may have been left out.

The panel also discusses Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City with journalist Prajwal Bhat, who joins from New York. Prajwal explains the intense reactions to Mamdani among sections of Indian right-wing, and how young voters turned out in record numbers.

Watch.

Listen & follow on Apple

Listen & follow on Spotify

Listen & follow on YouTube

Once a month, we will invite one TNM subscriber to the show. Write to us on what you would like to speak about to southcentral@thenewsminute.com.

Send your thoughts, suggestions, and criticism as well.

You can also let us know what you think by filling out our quick feedback form. Your suggestions help shape future episodes of South Central.

Audio Timecodes 

00:00:00- Introduction 

00:01:44 - Ayodhya of the South 

00:04:03 - Headlines 

00:14:02 - Kerala eradicates extreme poverty 

00:49:26 - Mamdani wins

01:09:51 - Yogendra Yadav on SIR  

01:25:02-  Recommendations 

References

Ayodhya of the South – A timeline of ‘time immemorial’

Ayodhya of the south: The Sangh’s southern rehearsal

RSS has a long-term plan in Kerala — it’s building local economic communities

How Zohran Mamdani has taken the Kejriwal Model to New York

2025 Press Freedom Predators

An Emboldened Mamdani Sheds Conciliatory Tone

Recommendations 

Freddy Thomas

Accelerating India's Development

Breaking the Mould

The Third Pillar

Prajwal Bhat 

The Anthropologists

Anisha Sheth

Lila Ike

Dhanya Rajedran

The Alibi

Become a subscriber. Click here.

Contribute to our reporting fund. Click here. 

To check out our other shows, click here.

Join our WhatsApp channel so you never miss an update. Click here.

Produced by Bhuvan Malik, edited by Jaseem Ali.

For now, South Central is free to listen. Before it goes behind a paywall, why not subscribe? Click here and get access to all our paywall content, from videos to investigations, ground reports to podcasts.