Over 1.1 million youth given employment by Centre in past 16 months, says labour minister

Mansukh Mandaviya

More than 1.1 million youth have been provided employment by the Centre in the past 16 months, labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya told the Lok Sabha on August 4.

"I would also like to state that if we look at the 10 years of the UPA government, only 30 million jobs were created during that decade… but according to the Reserve Bank of India’s estimates, more than 170 million youth have secured jobs and employment in the last 10 years (under Modi government)," the minister said.

"This is a result of our government's pro-youth policies," he said, adding that government had also prepared an action plan for employment for the next five years.

When Modi 3.0 commenced, the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana (PM-VBRY) was one of its first announcements, aiming to create more than 40 million jobs in the next five years with an expenditure of over Rs 2 lakh crore.

"This scheme is yielding very good results today and will make a significant contribution to the creation of 40 million new jobs in the country in the coming days," Mandaviya said.

The PM-VBRY or the Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) scheme came into effect from August 1.

Under the scheme, a first-time employees will get a month’s wage (up to Rs 15,000) and the employers will be given incentives for a period to two years for generating additional employment, with extended benefits for another two years for the manufacturing sector.

With an outlay of Rs 99,446 Crore, the ELI scheme aims to incentivise creation of more than 3.5 crore jobs in the country over a period of two years. Out of these, 1.92 crore beneficiaries will be entering the workforce for the first time. The scheme’s benefits would be applicable to jobs created between August 1, 2025 and July 31, 2027.