SMILE-75 initiative
- Recently, the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has launched the ‘SMILE-75’ initiative.
SMILE-75 Initiative
- Objective: Comprehensive rehabilitation of persons engaged in begging in 75 identified municipalities as a part of the celebrations of 75 years of Independence.
- Focus of the initiative will extensively on:
- Rehabilitation
- Provision of medical facilities
- Counselling
- Awareness
- Education
- Skill development
- Economic linkages
- Convergence with other government welfare programmes etc.
- The initiative is part of the Ministry’s ongoing SMILE project (Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise) for which ₹100 crore has been allocated till 2025-2026.
SMILE SCHEME
- Objective: To provide welfare and rehabilitation to the Transgender community and the people engaged in the act of begging.
- It has two sub-schemes of SMILE
- ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons’
- ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation of engaged in the act of Begging’
- It provides Scholarships for Transgender Students studying in IX and till post-graduation to enable them to complete their education.
- It has provisions for Skill Development and Livelihood under PM-DAKSH scheme
Prelims Take Away
- SMILE 75 initiative
- SMILE SCHEME
- PM-DAKSH