In the budget announced this year on the 23rd of July, an announcement was made for the youth internship programme, which is expected to provide numerous training and employment opportunities to the youth. However, according to various stakeholders and experts, this can only be possible if there is close coordination among the stakeholders and if efforts are made to overcome financial and other challenges.
What Is The Youth Internship Scheme?
The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced this scheme in her Budget session. According to this scheme, a number of internships will be provided by the top 500 companies of the country to the youth. This will ensure development of relevant hard and soft skills and appropriate on-the-job training as well. This will be accompanied by a monthly allowance of INR 5,000 and a one-time allowance of INR 6,000.
How Will The Companies Pay Out This Amount?
The companies can make use of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Funds to make these payments and employ the interns.
What Are The Downsides?
However, the challenge remains that under this arrangement, each company will have to employ around 4000 interns per year. This will be an added burden to the companies who wouldn’t even require such a high number of interns in their ordinary functioning.
What Do Experts Say?
Many experts have opined that more companies need to be made a part of this to reduce the individual burden. Others have suggested income tax benefits, and extending the scheme to rural areas as well under the ambit of MSMEs. Others have asked for clarification on various aspects like treatment of the travel expenses, duration of the internship, criteria for shortlisting the top 500 companies and others.
