Four years ago, at just 24, Remya P's life seemed to be falling apart. She was a widow, a cancer patient, and a mother of two small children with no job and no safe place to call home.

Living in Chavara village in Kerala's southern Kollam district, she faced daily struggles. Her fight was not just against the disease, but also against joblessness, the constant worry of how to pay for treatment and keep a roof over her family's head.

Her fortunes changed when local panchayat authorities came to know about her plight. They identified her as a beneficiary of the state government's Extreme Poverty Eradication Project (EPEP), a scheme designed to help those in the most dire circumstances.

Today, she is a cancer survivor. She has a steady job working at a panchayat helpdesk and, crucially, he

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