Entrepreneurship Development Programme for upliftment of transgender persons
Government of India is committed for upliftment and welfare of most vulnerable and marginalized groups of society including the transgender persons. To ensure rehabilitation of transgender persons, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched Support for Marginalized Individual for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE) scheme, sub-scheme ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons’.
One of the component of the scheme is to make the transgender persons self-reliant by granting them economic empowerment in form of self-employment. In the line of same a 15 days Entrepreneurship Development Programme has been inaugurated today on 21st August, 2025 at Garima Greh (shelter home for transgender persons) at Dabri, Delhi which is operated by Mitr Trust. The training programme is sponsored by Department of Social Justice and Empowerment under SMILE(TG) scheme and is being implemented by National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD).
A total of 25 transgender candidates will be trained during this programme. It has been planned to organize 18 such programme countrywide, on pilot basis, to train 1800 transgender persons. The training programme will include sessions on Business Opportunity Identification, market survey, entrepreneurship support ecosystem, financial aid support schemes for startups, entrepreneurial accounting and taxation, procedure and formalities for bank, regulatory compliances, etc.
A field visit to incubation centre of National Small Industries Corporation(NSIC) also have been planned during the training. The trainees will prepare a business plan by the end of the training session and they will be connected with the Banks for financial support to setup their enterprise. They further will be provided handholding support for next 6 months to track and monitor the sustenance of their enterprise.
It was informed during the inauguration that on the request of Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, the Reserve Bank of India has included the transgender community in “priority sector lending” category making it easier for transgender persons to access the financial support from banks for self-employment purposes. The transgender trainees were quite enthusiastic while welcoming this step of welfare and promised to take entrepreneurship as career to contribute to achievement of Viksit Bharat.
Officials of Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt of India, National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development, National Institute of Social Defence, operatives of Garima Greh Delhi were present during the inauguration of training.
