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The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment set out the progress of SMILE - Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise - its umbrella Central Sector Scheme covering persons engaged in begging and transgender persons.
Under the begging sub-scheme, 42,589 persons have been identified or surveyed and 12,710 rehabilitated, as recorded on the SMILE-BEGGARY portal; the sub-scheme was launched on 12 February 2022 with the stated goal of a 'BhikshaVritti Mukt Bharat'.
For transgender persons, 23 Garima Grehs operate across 17 States/UTs and have rehabilitated 1,041 persons over the last three years; 33,303 identity cards have been issued through the National Portal for Transgender Persons.
Institutional coverage now includes Transgender Protection Cells in 27 States/UTs and 30 Transgender Welfare Boards set up by States/UTs; an MoU with the National Health Authority has produced 147 AB PM-JAY transgender cards.
A third-party evaluation by NIRDPR, Hyderabad, in September-October 2025 has been folded into revised guidelines for continuing the scheme through the 16th Finance Commission cycle, 2026-27 to 2030-31.
Provide comprehensive rehabilitation - shelter, medical care, counselling, education, skilling and livelihood - to two of the least visible marginalised groups, and reintegrate them into mainstream society.
Key: An Umbrella Central Sector Scheme launched in February 2022 with an outlay of about Rs 365 crore for 2021-22 to 2025-26, bundling two sub-schemes rather than running as a single programme.
Identify, mobilise and rehabilitate persons engaged in begging through survey, shelter, medical care, counselling, education and skilling, working towards a 'BhikshaVritti Mukt Bharat'.
Key: Launched on 12 February 2022 and rolled out city by city - a first phase across roughly 30 cities followed by a second phase adding around 50 more. Progress is tracked on a dedicated SMILE-BEGGARY portal.
Provide shelter, identity documentation, healthcare, education, skilling and employment support to transgender persons.
Key: Delivers through Garima Grehs, the National Portal for Transgender Persons and convergence with Ayushman Bharat under an MoU with the National Health Authority.
Give destitute and abandoned transgender persons a shelter with food, medical care, recreation and capacity-building support.
Key: Introduced on 25 November 2020, with the first home at Vadodara, Gujarat; each Garima Greh is designed to house a minimum of 25 transgender persons. It now runs as a component of SMILE.
End hazardous manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks and secure the safety, dignity and livelihood of sanitation workers.
Key: Launched in July 2023 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment jointly with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, with an outlay of Rs 360 crore for 2022-23 to 2025-26. It profiles sewer and septic tank workers, gives PPE kits and AB-PMJAY cover, subsidises sanitation machinery and builds Emergency Response Sanitation Units. Waste pickers were added as a target group from 2024-25.
The Supreme Court recognised transgender persons as a 'third gender' and held that gender identity is integral to dignity, autonomy and freedom under Articles 14, 15, 16, 19 and 21 of the Constitution. It is the judicial foundation on which the later statute and every scheme in this space rest.
Came into force on 10 January 2020. It prohibits discrimination in education, employment, healthcare and access to public services, provides for a certificate of identity issued by the District Magistrate, and creates the National Council for Transgender Persons. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020 operationalised it and paved the way for the Garima Greh pilot.
Passed by the Lok Sabha on 24 March 2026 and the Rajya Sabha on 25 March 2026, with presidential assent on 30 March 2026. It reworks the definition of 'transgender person' by omitting self-perceived gender identity and framing the definition around intersex variations and differences in sexual development, routes the identity certificate through a medical board headed by a Chief Medical Officer or Deputy Chief Medical Officer whose recommendation the District Magistrate acts on, and strengthens penal provisions. It drew criticism from rights organisations for departing from the self-identification principle read into the law from NALSA.
The provision under which the National Council for Transgender Persons was constituted, by a notification dated 21 August 2020 - which is why the Council is a statutory body and not merely an executive committee.
Advises the Central Government on policies and legislation for transgender persons, monitors and evaluates the impact of policies, coordinates between departments, and redresses grievances. It is a statutory body constituted under Section 16 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.
The online route through which a transgender person applies for, tracks and receives a certificate of identity and identity card without physically approaching an office; 33,303 identity cards have been issued through it.
Implements Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY; the MoU with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment brings transgender persons into PM-JAY cover, with 147 AB PM-JAY transgender cards issued so far.
Conducted the independent third-party assessment of SMILE during September-October 2025, whose findings were incorporated into the revised scheme guidelines.
Its award period defines the cycle for which SMILE has been re-cast. Constituted under Article 280 of the Constitution, it submitted its report to the President on 17 November 2025 for the period 2026-27 to 2030-31.
A Central Sector Scheme is financed entirely by the Union Government from its own budget and implemented through central agencies or directly through state machinery, with no matching contribution demanded from the states. A Centrally Sponsored Scheme, by contrast, is cost-shared - typically 60:40 between the Centre and the general-category states, with a more favourable ratio for North Eastern and Himalayan states. SMILE is a Central Sector Scheme, which explains the delivery design described in the release: because the money is entirely central, the Ministry cannot rely on a state's financial stake to secure cooperation and instead works through 'convergence' - persuading State and UT Governments, District Administrations, Urban Local Bodies, Municipal Corporations and voluntary organisations to bring their own existing services to the same beneficiary. It also explains why coverage is measured in cities and shelters rather than uniformly across the country.
Simple Analogy: A Central Sector Scheme is a meal the Centre pays for in full and asks the states to help serve. A Centrally Sponsored Scheme is a meal both put money into, which is why the states have a stronger claim on how it is cooked.
NALSA located transgender rights in the dignity content of Article 21 - the same reasoning line that supports rehabilitation-based, rather than penal, approaches to begging.
There is no central anti-begging law; states legislate their own, several modelled on the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959. The Delhi High Court struck down the criminalising provisions of that Act as applied to Delhi in 2018, which is the legal backdrop to a rehabilitation-first central scheme.
The MoU with the National Health Authority is an example of scheme convergence - a welfare ministry buying health cover for its beneficiaries off an existing national programme rather than building its own.
The Ministry's other rehabilitation-plus-livelihood scheme, run jointly with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and the standard comparison when a question asks which ministry owns which social justice scheme.
Central schemes are appraised and re-approved in step with Finance Commission award periods; SMILE's revised guidelines for 2026-27 to 2030-31 are an instance of that calendar at work.
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections and Social Justice
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Static GK
General Awareness > Current Affairs
Social justice schemes appear every year in Prelims scheme-based questions, and transgender rights recur in GS2 answer writing after each legislative change.
A shelter home for destitute transgender persons under SMILE, providing shelter, food, medical care, recreation and skilling, each designed for a minimum of 25 residents.
The stated goal of the begging sub-scheme - an India free of begging, pursued through rehabilitation rather than penal measures.
A scheme that bundles distinct sub-schemes under a single administrative and budgetary head; SMILE bundles the begging and transgender rehabilitation sub-schemes.
Delivering a scheme by drawing on the existing services of other departments, local bodies and agencies rather than creating parallel infrastructure.
The document issued to a transgender person under the 2019 Act; since the 2026 amendment it is issued by the District Magistrate on the recommendation of a medical board.