KOCHI: In an initiative to rehabilitate and support abandoned and marginalised individuals in the city, the Ernakulam district administration has launched the project SMILE (Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise), with the support of the Union government.
“A comprehensive rehabilitation of those involved in panhandling in urban areas is the aim of the project. The various phases of the project are survey, identification, mobilisation, providing rescue shelter and comprehensive rehabilitation.
The individuals will be provided with counselling, educational and skill development training, vocational training, and healthcare with the cooperation of people’s representatives,” said District Collector N S K Umesh while launching the initial steps of the SMILE project.
A consortium, led by the district collector, comprising the Kochi corporation mayor, city police commissioner, district social justice officer, district development commissioner, and the implementing agency of the Union government’s SMILE project Peace Valley Foundation, has started working on setting up night shelters for them and to rehabilitate street dwellers.
The data of people living on the streets of Kochi will be collected in the first phase of the project. It is estimated that around 300 people, including men and women, stay under the metro pillars and on the pavements in the city.
There are many security issues raised by these people who do not have proper identification documents or addresses. A survey team of 36 people has been formed to collect data from 12 locations, from Edappally to Vyttila, and the data of 106 people have been collected so far.