THIRUVANANTHAPURAM | Kerala has won national acclaim for poverty alleviation for the sixth time in a row. The State got national recognition for implementation of the Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), a Centrally sponsored scheme to alleviate urban poverty and improve the quality of life of the urban poor.
Kerala has been ranked second in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs instituted SPARK (Systematic Progressive Analytical Real Time Ranking) for 2022-23. The prize money is Rs 15 crore to be utilised to expand the scope of project activities. Gujarat has been placed first place and Uttarakhand third.  position. Prior to this, Kerala had secured the first position in 2020-21, second the next year and third in 2017-18 and the next two years.
Unlike previous years, the performance assessment was completed on March 31 and the rank was announced. Kudumbashree is the nodal agency for the project in Kerala and received the awards for two fiscals in a gap of 10 days.

The project is being implemented by Kudumbashree across 93 municipalities. The key components include social organization and institutional development, capacity development and training, skill training and ensuring employment opportunities, self-employment scheme and setting up of shelters for the urban homeless.