Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2025, published 114th ILC session (2026)

Human Resources Development Convention, 1975 (No. 142) - India (Ratification: 2009)

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Formulation and implementation of education and training policies. Coordination with employment. In reply to the Committee’s previous request, the Government provides updates on the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme, the National Skill Qualification Framework and other self-employment schemes as well as on the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), which provides skills across 36 sectors and focuses on disadvantaged groups including women, transgender and persons with disabilities and in which by May 2023 13,700,000 persons participated. It further states that the National Education Policy 2020 and the National Policy on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 envisage an improved integration of vocational education with school education through clear action plans, targets and timelines to enable, by 2025, that a minimum of 50 per cent of learners benefit from vocational education. The Government also explains that the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute (VVGNLI), as one of the foremost training providers conducts trainings, partly in cooperation with the social partners, in the formal and informal sectors concerning skilling and upskilling of workers, with a special focus on disadvantaged groups, potential workers and capacity-building programs with teachers at colleges and universities to prepare students for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Government further states that in 2014, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) augmented the skill ecosystem through a formalized policy, a clearly defined framework, as well as standards and delivered, under the Skill India Mission, trainings on short-term skills through various programs focusing on employability to all sections of the society across the country and in which a total of 22,815,782 persons participated until 2023. The Committee notes in this regard the Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS), which aims at imparting vocational skills to the non-literates, neo-literates and persons with a rudimentary level of education up to eighth standard and school dropouts up to 12th standard in the age group of 15 to 45, which prioritizes minorities, women, Scheduled Casts, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, who the Constitution of India considers as the most socio-economic disadvantaged. The Government indicates that further career-related services are implemented through the Employment Exchanges, the online portal of the National Career Service (NCS), and NCS centres, which provide vocational guidance and counselling in 24 centres for differently abled jobseekers (up from 21 in the last report) and in 25 centres for members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, while the number of specialized Employment Exchanges for workers with disabilities and for women remained unchanged. These centres also provide non-formal vocational training to enhance the employability of all of these groups as well as general career-related services. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide updated detailed information, including statistics disaggregated by age, sex, social origin as well as state and region, on the impact of the vocational guidance and vocational training policies and programs which have been adopted. The Committee further requests the Government to provide information on the results achieved in the implementation of the programs promoting effective access to vocational guidance, training skilling and upskilling for all workers and on how the MSDE, the VVGNLI, the Employment Exchanges and NCS conceptualized these programs and/or assisted in their implementation. Finally, it requests the Government to continue to provide up-to-date information on the outcomes of the vocational training, self-employment schemes, and other vocational education and training measures aimed at enhancing the employability of women – including minority women – as well as young persons, those belonging to the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes, transgender persons and other disadvantaged groups encountering barriers to accessing and remaining in the labour market.

Article 3. Vocational guidance information and appropriate programmes for all handicapped and disabled persons. Further to indicating the information made publicly available on government websites in the context of vocational guidance and counselling, the Government describes, in reply to the Committee’s request, initiatives taken by the University Grants Commission and the training measures implemented by the MSDE through 14,953 Industrial Training Institutes as well as by the PMKVY through 721 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra established across 631 districts, and by the 286 JSS. The Government further highlights its focus on career counselling as part of which it launched the NCS Project through which career-related services including, career counselling, vocational a network of career counsellors. As part of its aim to assist persons with disabilities in the process of vocational rehabilitation through non-formal vocational training, wage and self-employment, the Government states that NCS centres organize job fairs and camps to facilitate rehabilitation services, in which during the period 2022 to 2023 period 35,628 persons with disabilities were evaluated and 13,476 were rehabilitated. At the same time, 224,100 persons belonging to the Scheduled Casts and Scheduled Tribes were provided career counselling and vocational guidance services and more than 20,000 received training under the different courses for employability enhancement. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide detailed updated information on the impact of measures adopted and implemented by the MSDE with regard to skills development and vocational guidance, particularly for disadvantaged groups.

Article 4. Vocational training and lifelong learning. The Government provides statistical information and indicates that formal vocational/technical training among youth aged 15–29 years and among the total working population aged 15–59 years have been continuously improving for males and females, both in rural and urban sectors between 2019 and 2021. The Committee notes that while the ILO has been assisting in the institutionalization of Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises Start and Improve Your Business training programs of ministries, industry chambers and state-level institutions, the Decent Work Country Programme for India 2023–2027 still finds that as a high percentage of working age are neither in employment nor in education or training, only 4.1 per cent of the youth and 3.3 per cent of those in the 15–59 age cohort in 2020–2021 have received formal vocational/ technical training and concluded, as confirmed by representatives of employers’ organizations, that the proportion of people with formal skill training needs to be scaled up massively with special attention to be paid to the skilling needs of women. The Committee invites the Government to continue to provide information, disaggregated by age, sex and specific groups of workers, including scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes, on the impact of the measures adopted. It also requests the Government to continue to provide detailed information on the measures adopted or envisaged to ensure that vocational training programs cover different fields of the economy and are adapted to the changing requirements of individuals throughout their lives and to the new and changing needs of the labour market.

Article 5. Cooperation with employers’ and workers’ organizations. In reply to the Committee’s previous request, the Government indicates that the National Skill Qualification Framework has been aligned with dynamic industry needs to cater to the needs of industry requirements, including schools, and unorganized sectors in the skill hubs to promote industry demand driven training through fee-based training with industry partnerships. In addition, in collaboration with Industries Sector Skill Councils, which represent approximately 40,000 industry partners, skill development and retention measures are being defined and implemented, with one aim being to ensure that the persons trained and skilled in accordance with the norms laid down are assured of employment at decent wages. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information, including regarding the manner in which it is ensured that the formulation and implementation of vocational guidance and vocational training policies and programs are carried out in cooperation with both, employers’ and also workers’ organizations and other interested bodies.