The national ceremony of launching of the Gramashakthi People's Movement, which aims at the elimination of poverty from the country, will be held today under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena, in Colombo.

The Gramashakthi People's Movement is the flagship development programme launched in line with the vision of the President for a Sustainable Sri Lanka with a robust economy free of all forms of poverty by the year 2030. 

The year 2017 was declared as the Year of Poverty Eradication in order to empower the less privileged sections of the society.

Accordingly, a national programme will be implemented covering the whole country through the Gramashakthi People's Movement, to provide sustainable solutions to poverty-related problems, the President's Media Unit said.

The Gramashakthi People's Movement will be implemented island-wide while giving priority to the districts where the population of low-income families are high and initially 1,000 villages. By the year 2020, it will be expanded to 5,000 villages.

This will focus on the livelihood requirements of completely and relatively poor families in Grama Niladhari Divisions, needs of women, the unemployed youth, and those who were affected by war in the North and the East.

During this ceremony the national program of Grama Shakthi will be declared. Thousand villages programs related to the 2017 will also be symbolically implemented. Adding the updated Gami Diriya 2040 villages into Grama Shakthi and declaring of the cooperation of the private sector, related to this national poverty alleviation program will also take place today.