Parliament Question: PM-Vikas Scheme

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 154 ANSWERED ON 10.12.2025 PM-VIKAS SCHEME

154. SHRI E T MOHAMMED BASHEER:

Will the Minister of MINORITY AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) the rate of verified employment and self-employment placement achieved under the PMVIKAS scheme during the last financial year and the manner in which this figure is compared with the outcomes recorded in previous years;

(b) the details of beneficiaries who secured wage employment and those who entered selfemployment under the PM-VIKAS scheme during the said period and the mechanisms used to independently verify the accuracy of these outcome figures; and

(c) the details of findings of the independent third-party evaluation conducted for the PMVIKAS scheme regarding employment generation, self-employment creation, income enhancement and job retention and the manner in which these findings reflect the overall effectiveness of the scheme during the last financial year? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)

(a) to (c) A statement is laid on the table of the House. *****STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 154 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10.12.2025 ASKED BY HON’BLE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT SHRI E T MOHAMMED BASHEER REGARDING “PM-VIKAS SCHEME”

(a) to (c): The Pradhan Mantri Virasat Ka Samvardhan (PM VIKAS) is a flagship Scheme of Ministry of Minority Affairs which converges five erstwhile schemes, including Seekho aur Kamao (SAK), USTTAD, Nai Manzil, Nai Roshni and Hamari Dharohar. The Central Sector scheme focuses on the socio-economic empowerment of the six notified minority communities through skill development; entrepreneurship and leadership of minority women;

and education support for school dropouts.

The scheme guidelines were approved in January 2025. Accordingly, the process to allocate projects under the scheme was initiated thereafter. So far, a target of approx. 1.40 lakh beneficiaries has been allocated to 42 Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs) across Non Traditional Skilling, Traditional Skilling, Women Leadership & Entrepreneurship and Education components under the PM VIKAS scheme.

As per the scheme guidelines, the following placement or employment deliverables

are mandated under different components:-

(A) Non-Traditional Skilling Component Under the Non-Traditional skilling component, it is mandatory for the PIAs to ensure placement of at least 75 percent skilled beneficiaries in some form of employment (wage/ self-employment/ apprenticeship) of which at least 50 percent should be placed in organized sector, as categorised in the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) / Common Cost Norms (CCN).

(B) Traditional Skilling Component Under this component, business opportunities would be facilitated by:

(a) Minority community specific events/ ‘Parvs’: i. Supporting minority craft persons in showcasing and marketing their products and/or local traditional cuisine and ICH. ii. Facilitating buyer-seller meets, promoting inter-community solidarity, and cultural exchanges.

iii. Striving to improve the quality of local products in sync with ‘vocal for local’ campaign.

Enhancing the visibility of local art, artists (including ICH) and their communities by promoting tourism (including sustainable, eco & religious tourism) and local economy.

(b) financial support in the form of loan/ credit from National Minorities Development and Finance corporation (NMDFC) or other banking / non-banking institutions,(c) formation of individual/ group enterprises for livelihood generation.

(C) Women Leadership and Entrepreneurship Component

TheWomen Leadership and Entrepreneurship Component of the scheme provides for: i. Career counselling to all interested beneficiaries to ensure that at least 15 percent of them are either assisted in applying for suitable education and skill training under any other scheme of this Ministry (through Traditional and Non-Traditional Skilling Components), or similar programs of other ministries, or assisted in finding suitable jobs for entering the labour/ employment market as per their qualifications.

ii. Development of individual or group enterprises amongst 30 percent of the beneficiaries trained under the Entrepreneurship Development module to setup enterprises/ self- employment ventures in line with the vision of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’, by establishing linkages with financial institutions such as NMDFC, Banks, NBFCs.

iii. Selection of 10 percent of the women trained under Entrepreneurship Development based on their leadership qualities being provided a training of 240 hours to become Business Mentors / Business Correspondents (Biz Sakhis/ Udyami Mitras), with a view to equip them to handhold potential entrepreneurs and set-up/ scale-up enterprises and develop and promote their own enterprises. Biz Sakhis are envisioned as mentors who would provide doorstep support to other women entrepreneurs to help them to set up their ventures and improve their livelihoods.

As the implementation of PM VIKAS scheme has commenced only recently and all allocated projects are in initial stages of implementation, no outcome based study/ policy evaluation / third party concurrent monitoring has been conducted till date under the scheme.

However, the scheme guidelines mandate concurrent monitoring of the scheme, in order to ensure effective on-ground implementation. Besides, to ensure transparency and accountability in the implementation of PM VIKAS, the dedicated portal for PM VIKAS Scheme has been integrated with Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH) portal of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) to ensure efficient, real-time monitoring along with coherence within the skilling ecosystem, keeping in mind the ‘whole-of-government’ approach.

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