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The Ministry of Labour and Employment outlines special initiatives, budgetary support, and the Employment Linked Incentive Scheme for the employment of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and minorities for the financial year 2025-26. The government allocates Rs. 20.61 Crore for the Welfare of SC/ST Jobseekers Scheme and Rs. 20,000 Crore for the New Employment Generation Scheme under the Employment Linked Incentive Scheme. First-time employees receive up to 15,000 rupees in one month wage support, and employers receive incentives for two years for additional job creation. The Ministry of Minority Affairs allocates Rs. 267.29 crores for the Pradhan Mantri Virasat Ka Samvardhan scheme for minority skill development.
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Ministry of Labour & Employment
Posted On: 21 JUL 2025 6:09PM by PIB Delhi
The budgetary allocations under the different schemes of Ministry of Labour & Employment inter-alia including the allocation for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Minority Communities during the financial year 2025-26 is given at Annexure.
Further, Ministry of Labour and Employment is implementing the "Welfare of SC/ST Jobseekers Scheme" through a network of 25 National Career Service Centres for SC/ST. The objective of the scheme is to enhance the employability of SC/ST jobseekers through vocational guidance, career counselling, computer training, pre-recruitment training etc. For the year 2025-26, Rs. 20.61 Crore has been allocated under the scheme. Regular meetings are conducted with all the implementing agencies for monitoring these schemes.
The Number of SC, ST and OBC Jobseekers (including semi-skilled & unskilled) registered with Employment Exchange (in thousand) are as below:
| Calendar Year | SC | ST | OBC |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 361.89 | 166.53 | 646.04 |
| 2022 | 709.90 | 242.30 | 2967.00 |
| 2023 (Provisional) | 1072.00 | 480.40 | 1780.00 |
Employment generation coupled with improving employability of all the sections of the society is a priority of the Government.
To foster youth employment in particular, the Union Government has recently approved the Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) Scheme to support employment generation, enhance employability and social security across all sectors, with special focus on the manufacturing sector. Under the Scheme, while the first-time employees can get one month's wage (up to Rs. 15,000/-), the employers can get incentives for a period of two years for generating additional employment, with extended benefits for another two years for the manufacturing sector.
The ELI Scheme was announced in the Union Budget 2024-25 as part of PM's package of five schemes to facilitate employment, skilling and other opportunities for 4.1 Crore youth with a total budget outlay of Rs. 2 Lakh Crore. With an outlay of Rs 99,446 Crore, the ELI Scheme aims to incentivize the creation of more than 3.5 Crore jobs (with 1.92 crore jobs for first timers) in the country, over a period of 2 years. With ELI Scheme,
The government intends to catalyze job creation in all sectors, particularly in manufacturing sector.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) is implementing various skilling and education schemes for Socio-economic development of minorities to make them employment ready. Pradhan Mantri Virasat Ka Samvardhan (PM VIKAS) is a flagship Scheme of MoMA, which converges five erstwhile schemes and focuses on upliftment of minorities through Skill development: entrepreneurship and leadership of minority women; and education support for school dropouts. A budgetary allocation of Rs. 267.29 crores for the FY 2025-26 has been made for the PM VIKAS scheme. The scheme has a robust monitoring mechanism wherein the entire candidate lifecycle is being Captured on the Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH) portal of M/o Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
Further, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) imparts skill training (skilling, re-skilling and upskilling) through its various flagship Schemes viz. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS), National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) and Craftsman Training Scheme (CTS), to all the sections of the society across the country.
The details of various employment generation schemes / programmes being implemented by the Government may be seen at: https://dge.gov.in/dge/schemes_programmes.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment Sushri Shobha Karandlaje in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
MG/DK
ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 190 FOR ANSWER ON 21.07.2025 REGARDING "SPECIAL INITIATIVES AND BUDGETARY SUPPORT FOR EMPLOYMENT OF SC, ST, OBC AND MINORITIES".
| Sl. No. | Name of the Scheme | Budget Estimates 2025-26 (Rs. in Crores) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Labour and Employment Statistical System (LESS) | 72.72 |
| 2 | Labour Welfare Scheme (LWS) | 50.68 |
| 3 | Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995 | 11250.00 |
| 4 | Social Security for Tea Plantation Workers in Assam | 66.87 |
| 5 | Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan (PMSYM) Yojana | 244.02 |
| 6 | National Pension Scheme (NPS) for Traders & Self-Employed Persons | 5.10 |
| 7 | e-Shram Portal - National Database of Unorganized Workers | 27.80 |
| 8 | Rehabilitation of Boded Labour | 6.00 |
| 9 | Coaching and Guidance for SC, ST and OBCs | 20.61 |
| 10 | National Career Service (NCS) | 77.00 |
| 11 | New Employment Generation Scheme (NEGS) – ELI | 20000.00 |
| Total | 31820.80 | |
(Release ID: 2146482)
