Why In News

• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment 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 focus of the sub-sch eme is on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities and intervention, counseling, education, skill development, economic linkages to the transgender persons.
• Ministry has also initiated 12 pilot shelter homes namely Garima Greh: Shelter Home for Transgender Persons and provided financial assistance to community-based organizations (CBOs) for setting up of these shelter homes.
• These pilot shelter homes are in States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and also including Bihar.
• The main aim of Garima Greh is to provide shelter to transgender persons with basic amenities like food, medical care and recreational facilities.