SMILE

Why in news?

• Recently, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated a scheme “SMILE - Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise”.

About Smile:

• Smile stands for ‘Support for marginalized individuals for livelihood and enterprise’
• It is formulated by merging two Central Sector Schemes namely
  • Comprehensive Rehabilitation of persons engaged in the Act of begging and
  • Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons
• The focus of the scheme is extensively on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, basic documentation, education, skill development, economic linkages and so on
• The scheme would be implemented with the support of State/UT Governments/Local Urban Bodies, Voluntary Organizations, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), institutions and others.

PRELIMS QUESTION

‘SMILE’, recently launched by the Government, aims for:

(a) Supporting organic farmers in North East India.

(b) Providing financial and technical assistance to young start-up entrepreneurs

(c) Promoting the education and health of adolescent girls

(d) Supporting marginalized individuals for livelihood and enterprise

Answer