Socio-economic Impact of Mitraniketan; A Social Enterprise on Agricultural and Rural Development in Kerala

The study was conducted in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala state where Mitraniketan is located to measure the socio-economic impact of Mitraniketan's efforts on agricultural and rural development. For the measurement purpose an index was developed by combining the weighted scores on 10 impact indicators. The focus was on four components: impact on people's participation, impact on capacity building, economic impact, and socio-political impact. In total there were 10 sub-components that dealt with aspects of impact of Mitraniketan on agricultural and rural development. The results revealed that the impact of Mitraniketan was very high on the lives of the beneficiaries as it encompassed holistic development touching all aspects of the lives of different client groups in the village: farmers, women, youth, and children.