India’s Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, A. Narayanaswamy, on Wednesday, December 22, shared a written reply in Rajya Sabha, regarding the schemes planned for transgenders. As per the plans, the ministry has formulated a scheme “SMILE - Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise,” which includes sub scheme “Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons”
The Standing Finance Committee had approved the scheme on November 30, 2021, and the focus of the sub-scheme is on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities and intervention, counseling, education, skill development, economic linkages to the transgender persons.
Skill development training to the Transgender beneficiaries is also being conducted through PM-DAKSH - A skill development scheme of the Ministry. On August 21, 2020, National Council for Transgender Persons was constituted to advise Government on policies, programs, legislation, and projects with respect to transgender persons.
The Ministry has launched National Portal for Transgender Persons on November 25, 2020. Any Transgender applicant can obtain Certificate of Identity and Identity Card without any physical interface with the office of issue. The person who has been issued a certificate of identity are entitled to change the first name in the birth certificate and all other official documents relating to the identity of such person.
Ministry has initiated 12 pilot shelter homes namely 'Garima Greh': Shelter Home for Transgender Persons. The main aim of these shelter homes is to provide safe and secure shelter to Transgender persons in need. These pilot shelter homes are in States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha. Ministry has provided full financial assistance to community-based organizations (CBOs) for setting up of these shelter homes which provide basic amenities like food, shelter, medical care, recreational facilities and conduct capacity-building and skill development programs for Transgender persons.
During lockdown period in COVID pandemic a helpline was also setup to provide psychological support through trained Psychologists to Transgender Persons in distress during COVID period
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