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The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment told the Lok Sabha that it has been implementing the Central Sector Scheme SMILE — Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise — Comprehensive Rehabilitation of Persons Engaged in the Act of Begging since 23 October 2023 in 216 major cities and towns across 33 States/UTs.
As on 30 June 2026, 2,824 children had been identified, rescued and rehabilitated under the scheme.
Of these, 1,549 children were reunited with parents or families, 676 admitted to schools, 309 admitted to Anganwadi Centres and 290 produced before Child Welfare Committees.
Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number at 927 children, followed by Chandigarh with 313, Delhi with 233, Maharashtra with 208 and Andhra Pradesh with 191.
The Government stated there is no separate scheme for children engaged in begging, since SMILE's framework already provides for 100% rehabilitation and mainstreaming of children surveyed, profiled and rescued; age-wise and gender-wise data are not maintained separately.
SMILE is a Central Sector Scheme, meaning it is fully funded and implemented by the Union Government through its own agencies and implementing partners — unlike a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, where the Centre and States share the cost. That distinction explains why the scheme operates in a defined list of 216 cities rather than nationwide through State machinery. Once a child is identified in a survey or rescue operation, the pathway branches. The preferred outcome is family reunification, which accounted for 1,549 of the 2,824 children. Where that is not feasible, the child is supported through an Anganwadi Centre if under six, or admitted to school if of school age. Only children requiring institutional care are produced before the Child Welfare Committee, the statutory body constituted in each district under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 for children in need of care and protection. The CWC alone can order a child's placement in a Child Care Institution. The distinction between the CWC and the Juvenile Justice Board is a standard exam point: the CWC handles children in need of care and protection, while the JJB handles children in conflict with law.
Simple Analogy: The scheme tries the family first, the school or Anganwadi second, and the institution only last — because an institution is a place of safety, not a solution.
Survey, identify, rescue, rehabilitate and mainstream persons engaged in begging, with a specific focus on children
Key: Implemented since 23 October 2023 in 216 cities and towns across 33 States/UTs; provides for family reunification, school and Anganwadi admission, and institutional care through Child Welfare Committees where required; the framework targets 100% rehabilitation and mainstreaming of children surveyed, profiled and rescued
Provide transgender persons with scholarships, skill development, medical support including gender-affirmation care, and shelter
Key: The other arm of the SMILE umbrella launched on 12 February 2022; its shelter component is Garima Greh, which provides food, clothing, recreation, skill development and medical support
Supplementary nutrition, pre-school education, immunisation, health check-up and referral services for children under six and for pregnant and lactating women
Key: The delivery point to which 309 rescued children were linked; ICDS is run by the Ministry of Women and Child Development under the Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 umbrella
Child protection services and welfare for children in need of care and protection
Key: The Ministry of Women and Child Development scheme under which Child Welfare Committees, Child Care Institutions and the child protection machinery of the Juvenile Justice Act are supported — the system SMILE hands children over to
Provides for Child Welfare Committees in each district for children in need of care and protection, and for Child Care Institutions; rescued children requiring institutional care are produced before the CWC under this Act. The Act also separately provides for Juvenile Justice Boards for children in conflict with law
Article 21A makes free and compulsory education a Fundamental Right for children aged 6-14, and Article 45 as amended directs the State to provide early childhood care and education for children below six — the constitutional basis for routing rescued children to schools and Anganwadi Centres
Article 23 prohibits traffic in human beings and forced labour, and Article 24 prohibits employment of children below 14 in factories, mines or hazardous work — the provisions under which organised begging involving children is treated as exploitation
Direct the State to ensure that children are not abused and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and moral and material abandonment
Beggary is dealt with by State legislation modelled on the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959; the Delhi High Court in 2018 struck down provisions criminalising begging in Delhi, which is the backdrop to the shift from a penal to a rehabilitative approach that SMILE represents
SMILE's framing as 'comprehensive rehabilitation' rather than detention reflects the constitutional shift after courts held that penalising poverty violates the right to life and dignity under Article 21
Children found begging are frequently victims of trafficking rings, which is why the CWC route under the Juvenile Justice Act matters — it triggers a legal inquiry into how the child came to be there, not merely shelter
313 children in a small Union Territory against 927 in all of Uttar Pradesh indicates that these figures measure the intensity of survey and rescue effort as much as the underlying incidence — an important caveat for any Mains answer using them
SMILE sits with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, while the Child Welfare Committees and Child Care Institutions it uses belong to the Ministry of Women and Child Development's Mission Vatsalya — a cross-ministry handover that is unusual and examinable
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections; Social Justice
General Awareness > Government Schemes
Social justice schemes and the Juvenile Justice architecture appear regularly in Prelims and GS2 Mains
Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise — the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment's umbrella scheme launched 12 February 2022, with sub-schemes for transgender persons and for persons engaged in begging
The district-level statutory body under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 that decides on children in need of care and protection
A registered institution under the Juvenile Justice Act providing residential care to children placed there by a Child Welfare Committee
The shelter home component under SMILE's transgender sub-scheme, providing food, clothing, recreation, skill development and medical support