PM Modi’s Employment Generation Scheme Fares Poorly on Placements

Of the 17.07 lakh students trained under the scheme only 82K students were employed since its launch on 15 July 2015.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Minister of Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy. (Photo Courtesy: PIB)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s star-studded employment generation scheme – Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) – may not have been an actual success, an RTI filed by Hindustan Times (HT) finds. The Rs 1,500-crore scheme, with Sachin Tendulkar as the brand ambassador, has been able to place only 5% of the candidates, the report said, attributing the data to the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

The NSDC, the primary agency which promotes and finances “skilling programmes” reflects that since the launch of the scheme in July 2015, only 82,183 students bagged jobs out of a whopping 17.07 lakh, according to the report.

NSDC CEO Defends Scheme

Jayant Krishna, NSDC CEO, however, argued that the RTI data was not an accurate reflection of the scheme’s performance, the report said. Krishna claimed that the actual numbers the scheme has thrown up are much higher, but very few training partners shared data as they were “not mandated to report back”.

He also pointed out that placements only begin after the certification process is completed, and since only eight lakh students have received the certificate till now, the numbers cannot be taken at face value, the report added.

A Weak Argument?

Experts, however, have called out Krishna’s argument for being fallacious, according to the report. They argued that the “PMYK’s 113-page process manual” states in no ambiguous terms that the training institutes are accountable for the placement of candidates, and should therefore, have the required information.

It’s very logical to ask training partners to give the NSDC reports on their placement record, especially those training partners, parent or subsidiary companies which are running various business activities. They can be asked how many candidates they themselves have employed out of the total trained candidates from their own institutes.

Retd Colonel NB Saxena, Former Executive Techincal Member, Construction Skill Development Council

The RTI Findings:

• Majority of the candidates – 80,748 – were trained by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS)
  
• The NSDC has 12,181 training centres in 32 sectors
  
• An earlier scheme under NSDC, The Standard Training Assessment Reward (STAR), trained approximately 9.5 lakh candidates, but kept no record of placements
  

An owner of a company which assesses candidates under the PMYK said in the report, “Isn’t it surprising that the NSDC trained about 27 lakh candidates under two schemes – STAR and PMKVY – through its own affiliated training partners, but without keeping placement records? As far as my assessment goes, the placement record is dismal and that’s why NSDC is shying away from asking its training partners to track it.”