GRAAM on a mission to understand the ultra-poor population in Karnataka

In a bid to understand the condition of ultra-poverty in Karnataka and to uplift their lives by providing livelihood opportunities, GRAAM has collaborated with The/Nudge Institute. In the new project commissioned by The/Nudge, GRAAM will be taking up the baseline and endline evaluation of the Graduation Approach interventions. 

The Graduation approach is a multifaceted set of interventions designed to address the complex nature of extreme poverty. These interventions are adapted to the local context and generally include connecting participants to social protection to meet their basic needs, providing training and assets for income generation, financial literacy and savings support, and social empowerment through community engagement and life skills training - all facilitated through in-person coaching. The Graduation approach empowers participants to develop sustainable livelihoods that set them on a path of upward economic mobility. They also become better integrated into society, develop social connections, improve their self-esteem, and establish active roles in their communities (BRAC, 2021).

The/Nudge Institute is scaling up adaptations of the Graduation Approach in multiple states. Having implemented the approach in Jharkhand, the organization is about to implement a customized version of the same in the districts of Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) and Bidar in the deprived region of North Karnataka. The GRAAM team is visiting several villages of Bidar and Gulbarga to study the intervention further.