PMKVY Under the Scanner: When India’s Flagship Skill Scheme Failed Its Own Promise
₹14,000+ crore spent. Over a decade of implementation. Yet the core question remains unanswered: did Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) skill India for jobs—or merely generate certificates?
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India’s Performance Audit Report No. 20 of 2025 presents a deeply troubling picture of India’s largest skill development programme. What emerges is not a story of transformation, but one of weak planning, poor oversight, unreliable data, questionable certifications, low placements, and systemic governance failures
1. No Long-Term Vision, No National Skill Plan
Despite PMKVY being launched in 2015 as a “continuing scheme”, the audit confirms that no long-term strategy or National Skill Development Plan (NSDP) was prepared for the first three phases (2015–2022)
Training targets changed phase-to-phase
- Guidelines were repeatedly revised
- Implementation lacked continuity and direction
Question:
How can a national skilling mission function for seven years without a roadmap aligned to India’s actual labour market needs?
2. Training Completely Misaligned with Skill-Gap Reality
The National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (NPSDE) projected a requirement of 40.29 crore skilled workers by 2022. PMKVY targeted only 1.32 crore—and even that limited effort was poorly aligned with actual demand
Shocking sectoral distortions:
- Over 40% of training concentrated in Retail, Electronics, and Apparel
- These sectors accounted for less than 10% of projected demand
- High-demand sectors like Construction, Logistics, Tourism were under-served
State-level mismatch:
- States with higher projected demand received fewer trainings
- States with lower demand absorbed disproportionately higher targets
Question:
Was PMKVY driven by labour market demand—or by training provider convenience?
3. Job-Role Monopolies and Assembly-Line Skilling
The audit reveals a disturbing concentration of certifications:
- 40% of all certifications clustered in just 10 job roles
- Entire sectors reduced to single repetitive job roles
- Green Jobs → Safai Karmchari (90% of sector output)
- Healthcare → General Duty Assistant
- IT → Domestic Data Entry Operator
This is not workforce diversification—it is mass production of low-mobility skills.
Question:
Is PMKVY creating employable professionals—or trapping youth in narrow, low-wage roles?
4. Eligibility Norms Ignored, Targeting Failed
CAG found that candidates were enrolled without verifying:
- Age criteria
- Educational qualification
- Work experience
- Unemployment or dropout status
There was no mechanism to ensure that PMKVY actually targeted its intended beneficiaries.
Question:
If eligibility checks were ignored, how credible are PMKVY’s beneficiary numbers?
5. Placement Claims Collapse Under Scrutiny
Out of 56.14 lakh candidates trained under Short-Term Training and Special Projects:
- Only 41% were placed
- In some states (notably Kerala), fake or incorrect placement documents were submitted by training partners
There was no reliable post-placement tracking system for most of the scheme period.
Question:
Can a skill scheme be called “successful” when nearly 6 out of 10 candidates remain unplaced?
6. RPL-BICE: The Most Alarming Irregularities
Recognition of Prior Learning with Best-in-Class Employers (RPL-BICE) emerges as one of the most compromised components:
- Questionable selection of employers
- No employer–employee relationship in many cases
- Weak scrutiny of proposals
- Unreliable monitoring records produced by NSDC and implementing agencies
Question:
Was RPL-BICE about recognising skills—or inflating certification numbers at scale?
7. Financial Mismanagement and Weak Controls
Despite ₹10,194 crore being released:
- Funds were delayed or underutilised, especially at State level
- ₹222.63 crore remained idle due to poor fund planning
- NSDC retained ₹12.16 crore interest improperly, recovered only after audit
- ₹24.13 crore excess administrative charges were levied in PMKVY 1.0
Question:
Who was monitoring financial propriety when public money was parked, delayed, or overcharged?
8. IT Systems Without Data Integrity
For a scheme fully dependent on digital platforms:
- No data retention policy existed
- Training photos/videos, candidate records, and verification documents were not preserved
- Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance was non-functional in many centres
Question:
How can outcomes be audited when digital evidence itself is missing?
9. Regulatory Vacuum and Weak Oversight
NCVET—the apex regulator—became operational only after most of PMKVY had already run. As a result:
- Qualification Packs lacked timely regulation
- Assessment and awarding bodies operated with minimal supervision
- Quality assurance remained largely theoretical
Meanwhile, the PMKVY Steering Committee met only 15 times in eight years.
Question:
Was PMKVY ever meaningfully governed—or merely administered?
Final Question: What Did PMKVY Actually Achieve?
The CAG does not allege fraud in isolation—it highlights systemic design failure.
PMKVY became:
- Input-focused, not outcome-driven
- Certificate-heavy, not employment-led
- Provider-driven, not demand-aligned
Unless these findings lead to accountability, course correction, and transparent reform, PMKVY risks becoming a cautionary tale of how large-scale public skilling can miss both market needs and youth aspirations.
Skill development cannot succeed on paper credentials alone. Jobs—not numbers—must be the real metric.
Source: Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Performance Audit Report No. 20 of 2025 on PMKVY
