The socio -economic and caste census in 2011 estimated that more than 6.62 Lakh households in rural India relies on begging or charity or alms. A representative picture of the file. | Photo Credit: K Ragesh
Two years after the Ministry of Social Justice of the Union began to identify, survey and profiling of people dealing with begging within the smiling system has so far identified 9,958 such individuals across 81 capitals where they are carried out. By comparison, the census in 2011 recorded 3.72 Lakh beggars across the country.
According to records available with the Ministry, which manages the support of marginalized individuals for livelihood and the Smile system (SMILE), out of 9,958 persons identified, 970 was rehabilitated. Of these rehabilitated, 352 children were from December 2024.
Smile scheme started in 2022. One of its components was the entity for identifying, profile and rehabilitation of individuals involved in an act of begging with their consent. The second part of the scheme is to strengthen the position of transgender people. According to the Sub-Shchem instructions that get rid of India “Beggary”, the idea “to create identified urban spaces, mainly religious cities, tourist places and historic cities without a beggar” were the idea of ”to create identified urban spaces, especially religious cities, tourist places and historic cities.
This program started in 30 cities in phase 1, including cities such as Ayodhya, Dharamsala, Amritsar, Gir Somath, Giridih, New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Gaya, Lucknow, Madurai, Kochi, Jamma, Srinagar, and Jaisalmer. In Phase 2, which began in the second year of its implementation, another 50 cities were added to this list.
The census of socio-economic and caste in 2011, to which the Ministry of Social Justice continues to reference in its manual 2024 on social security statistics, estimated that more than 6.62 Lakh households in rural India relies on begging or charity or alms.
According to the scheme instructions, the aim of the system was to rehabilitate at least 8,000 people in three years between FY 2023-24 and FY 2025-26. The strategy for this included the repetition of local administration agencies to the level of city local authorities and municipal corporations. This would mean the identification and exploration of people dealing with the act, achieving their rehabilitation, and then their comprehensive relocation.
The handbook for identifying, profiling and exploration of the exercise says that local inspectors are expected to identify and explore about 25 individuals dealing with begging. The manual asks the survey team to first photograph or video person involved in the law, and then “approached a person in a friendly way” to collect more information.
The latest Sub-Schleme instructions have stated that 100 crore crore, which is to be spent for more than three years-below 2023-24 to 2025-26, was assigned. According to the annual report of the Ministry of Social Justice for 2024-25, as of 31 December 2024, the government spent 14.71 GBP in this system.
Published – April 26, 2025 20:13
