A Parliamentary panel has expressed dismay over the non-achievement of physical targets under the labour ministry’s major schemes like Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhaan Yojana in 2022-23.
“The Committee are concerned to note that in case of major schemes, the Ministry has not been able to achieve the physical targets during 2022-23,” said Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, Textile and Skill Development in its 41st report on Demand of Grants (2023-24) of Ministry of Labour and Employment tabled in Parliament on Monday. It noted that physical targets for enrollments under Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhaan Yojana (PM-SYM) were fixed at one crore new beneficiaries while the beneficiaries enrolled have only been to the extent of 2,63,971 as of February 13, 2023. Similarly, it observed that for the National Pension Scheme for Traders, shopkeepers and self-employed persons, the enrollments have been a miniscule 4,979 vis-a-vis the overall target of 25 lakh beneficiaries.
In the case of the National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW), while the physical target was to register 5 crore unorganised workers, only 1.52 crore workers could be registered by February 7, 2023, it said. The low level of enrollments has been attributed mainly to the outbreak of Covid-19 and resultant lockdowns imposed across the country during the period; eligibility conditions in the case of NPS Traders; the presence of other pension schemes, etc. as a result of which registration/enrollments were much less than anticipated, the report noted.
The constraints notwithstanding, the achievement recorded in regard to the target set for operationalising 59 Model Career Centres (MCC) has been to the extent of 100 per cent, it added.
Further, while 50 new MCCs were proposed to be established and operationalised, 177 MCCs were established and 2,400 SC/ST candidates were imparted vocational training/career counselling under Special Coaching Scheme as envisioned.
The committee acknowledged the presence of bottlenecks/constraints encountered by the implementing agencies in the process of achieving the targets.
It emphasised that now the effect of the pandemic has eased to a considerable extent and the ministry needs to put in place a robust mechanism to ensure that the schemes regain momentum and shortfalls in achieving the targets are offset.
