Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE) Scheme, 2022

Policy Update
Radhika Gupta

Background

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in India is entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring welfare, social justice, and empowerment of the disadvantaged sections of society. Therefore, the objective of all the policies and programs made by this ministry is to make persons belonging to the marginalized groups (like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Persons with Disabilities, Senior Citizens etc) in the country self-reliant. 

In another such initiative, the Ministry launched the scheme SMILE- Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise in February 2022. Under this umbrella scheme, members of the transgender community and persons engaged in the act of begging were targeted, with a focus on providing rehabilitation, medical facilities, education, safe housing, and skill development.

The scheme is supported by stakeholders, including the Governments of Indian States and Union Territories, Municipal Corporations, Urban Bodies, Voluntary Organizations, and Community-Based Institutions, among others.

Performance

The SMILE scheme was implemented in two phases. In Phase 1, it was started across thirty cities, including Amritsar, New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, etc, in 2022.  In Phase 2, which began in the second year of its implementation, fifty more cities were added to the list.

There are two sub-schemes of the program targeting two different marginalized groups in the country. These include:

A.   Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons

This sub-scheme includes the following components: 

  • Scholarships for Transgender Students: This provision includes scholarships for transgender students from the secondary schooling level to post-graduation, to enable them to have access to complete education.
  • Skill Development and Livelihood: Focused on improving the competency level of transgender persons and other marginalized communities (like SCs, OBCs,EBCs and Safai Karamcharis) under the PM DAKSH scheme.
  • Composite Medical Health: This scheme provides a comprehensive package for supporting Gender-Reaffirmation surgeries in convergence with the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) through selected hospitals.
  •  Ensuring Housing through ‘Garima Greh’: Many Transgender persons face homelessness due to a lack of family acceptance and social stigma. Due to this, the provision of building shelter homes called ‘GarimaGreh’ was started by the government under SMILE.
  •  E-Services: Under this provision, a National Portal and Helpline (https://transgender.dosje.gov.in/) have been set up to provide necessary information and address important issues.
AD 4nXfuHkHDiwicTLZ8UfMrcnQy3Ti65ECod0s6htvjy9jEt2IraN1wUaMhD2A nhpft6eusFG VpJ8Kj2z2XeCaM Bh0MyjT3WDXyiJkFtq0QYRTtWof1FAnqXGlWydZb z8Q4vXi6ug?key=JyQVohoXt7wuOZ wiafaAQ

B.   Comprehensive Rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of Begging

This sub-scheme focuses on the following:

  • Survey and Identification: This is done to identify beneficiaries of the program by the participating agencies.
  • Mobilization: This includes outreach work  done to mobilize the persons engaged in begging to avail the services available in the Shelter Homes
  • Rescue/ Shelter Home: Under this provision, the shelter homes will facilitate education for children engaged in the act of Begging. 
  • Comprehensive Resettlement

The overall objective of this sub-scheme is to make the country rid of ‘beggary’ specially from identified urban spaces. Another objective is to make a strategy for rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of begging to ensure they are reintegrated into the society and can lead their lives with dignity and self-confidence.  This is to be done through coordinated action and convergence of stakeholders like the Central and State/UT Governments, District Administration and Municipal Corporation

The ‘SMILE-75 Initiative’

As an example of the government’s commitment to the rehabilitation mission, a ‘SMILE-75’ initiative was also launched by the central government in 2022 at a shelter home in New Delhi. This was done to identify 75 municipal corporations that would work towards ensuring the rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of begging. 12 pilot Garima Greh Centers were set up across nine Indian states between 2020-21 as a part of the initiative.

Financial Outlay 

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment under the Central Government has spent a total of ₹365.00 Crore for the implementation of the scheme. The detailed Financial Outlay of the SMILE scheme is as follows:

    Year Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons (In ₹)  Comprehensive Rehabilitation of Persons engaged in Act of Begging(In ₹) Total Amount Spent (In ₹)
2025-2676.88 Crore30.00 Crore106.88 Crore
2024-2563.90 Crore25.00 Crore88.90 Crore
2023-2452.91 Crore20.00 Crore72.91 Crore
2022-2346.31 Crore15.00 Crore61.31 Crore
2021-2225.00 Crore10.00 Crore35.00 Crore
Total₹265 Crore₹100 Crore₹365.00 Crore

Impact

Under the SMILE initiative, persons engaged in the act of begging were identified, surveyed and profiled by the organisations involved. This led to 9958 persons across 81 major cities and towns being identified as eligible for rehabilitation. Out of these 970 persons (352 out of whom were children) have been rehabilitated.

AD 4nXeA kngI0CCZaJJ IcQ2LjjDzqf9PYFVcQwzlEqamX4 cmsgFmC49bWHEylJ TejHJgRGFCFQS7IEA4jhpOChi5QLBb8hlN7jKvfiCzVnsq0klmCkRJ1Ws9ZXSqdo4zi2RuS 5X?key=JyQVohoXt7wuOZ wiafaAQ

Under this scheme, rehabilitation is a six-month-long process that includes building a rapport with the identified persons, making them participate in personal healing activities, vocational training, family tracing initiatives and finally shifting them to their own house from the rehabilitation center. They also received facilities like education, counselling and medical care to ensure that they can rebuild their lives successfully.

Efforts have also been made under the sub-scheme of SMILE that deals with Welfare of Transgender Persons. 27,000 Identity Cards and Certificates have also been issued to transgender persons by the government, since the inception of the program in 2022. Over 3,000 transgender persons have also used composite healthcare services under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Setu scheme (AB-PMJAY) in convergence with the SMILE scheme according to the latest government data.

Challenges & Suggestions

According to the data recorded under the 2011 Census, 3.72 Lakh people were engaged in the act of begging, all across the country, a number that has grown substantially since according to social experts.  However, under the SMILE initiative, only 9,958 persons were identified as eligible, and out of these, only 970 were successfully rehabilitated.

The target group of the scheme, Transgender individuals and persons engaged in the act of begging, often remain unaware about how to access these schemes and benefit from them. For example, the National Portal for Transgender Persons is a resource that is underutilized by the community due to a lack of digital literacy and awareness measures. 

The number of operational Garima Greh shelters are limited and the distribution varies across different states and UT/s, with some states having no infrastructure at all to support the SMILE initiative. The existing shelter homes have reported cases of funding delays from the governments, forcing them to rely on loans or crowdfunding. There is also a prevalent urban bias, where these shelter homes are built only in Tier 1 cities, ignoring towns and rural areas. 

To ensure that the SMILE program can reach out to its target group better, here is a list of suggestions -:

  1. Ensure timely funding to all the functional Garima Grehs or shelter homes so that they can remain fully operational, and benefit transgender individuals and persons involved in begging.
  2. In order to spread more awareness about the scheme amongst the targeted groups, partner with local NGOs, Anganwadi workers and use community radio, street plays and local influencers who create regional content.
  3. Ensure budget-training and sensitization programs about the LGBTQIA+ community, to all the involved stakeholders like municipal corporation workers, volunteers as well as local leaders.   
  4. Organize digital literacy classes for transgender individuals and persons engaged in begging, so that they can access the websites, hotline services and online forums built for them under the SMILE program.
  5. Open more Garima Greh shelter homes all across India, specially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and towns, so that more and more persons from disadvantaged sections of the society, benefit from the initiative.

Way Forward

The SMILE scheme launched by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is a transformative step in building an India that is more inclusive and where even persons from the historically disadvantaged sections of society can lead a life of dignity. By rehabilitating transgender persons and individuals engaged in the act of begging, SMILE gives them basic amenities like housing and healthcare, as well as opportunities through education and skill-based training. It has reintegrated 970 people back into society so far. However, to ensure a bigger impact and reach the targeted group more effectively, better implementation measures, including timely funding, resource-management training, and building more shelter homes, are some of the few measures required.

References

About the contributor: Radhika Gupta is a research intern at IMPRI. She is currently pursuing her graduation in journalism and mass communication from Bennett University. 

Acknowledgement: The author extends her sincere gratitude to Aasthaba Jadeja and fellow interns, who provided guidance throughout the process.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.

Read more at IMPRI:

National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), 2018: Advancing India’s Coastal Governance and Science

Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), 1966

Authors

Related Posts

Talk to Us