Pradhan Mantri Dakshta Aur Kushalta Sampann Hitgrahi (PM-DAKSH)(PM-DAKSH)

Overview

About PM-DAKSH

PM-DAKSH is a skilling scheme, so nothing in it goes towards a degree, a semester fee or a hostel bill. It buys a short vocational course at an empanelled training institute and pays the candidate a monthly stipend while the course runs. Where the scheme now sits is set out in the Union Budget papers rather than announced anywhere by the department: the Notes on Demands for Grants for Demand No. 93 say of it that "This Scheme has been merged with PM - Kaushal Vikas Yojana from 2026-27", and the PM-DAKSH line in the same table runs from Rs 79.40 crore actually spent in 2024-25 and Rs 130.00 crore budgeted for 2025-26 down to Rs 20.00 crore at the revised stage, with no provision entered against 2026-27 at all, on the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment's demand. Read that narrowly, because it is all the document says: a budget line folded into another scheme is not a certificate withdrawn, and it is not a completed course annulled.

Two payments run in parallel here and they are easily muddled. The Government pays the empanelled institute for the seat, which is why the cost of the training to trainees is recorded as free of cost; the trainee is paid a stipend on top of that, described in the up-skilling stream as compensation for wage loss during the period of training. Those rules, the target group of SCs, OBCs, EWSs, DNTs and Safai Karamcharis including waste pickers, and the age band of 18-45 years all sit on the department's own PM-DAKSH scheme page.

Delivery was never direct: empanelled training institutes run the courses. Who sits above them is a point on which the record splits, and both versions are live. A written Rajya Sabha reply of 11 March 2026 still describes all three of the ministry's finance corporations as implementing by community, NSFDC for SC beneficiaries, NBCFDC for OBC, EWS and DNT beneficiaries and NSKFDC for Safai Karamcharis including waste pickers, and it puts the number of beneficiaries trained under the scheme at 1,87,305, on the record of that reply. The current guidelines keep NSKFDC as the implementing agency for up-skilling and re-skilling and seat its chairman on the appraisal committee, but route the rest through a Project Implementing Agency working under the department, per clause 7.2 and Annexure I.

Set that against what was sanctioned. Approval to continue the scheme carried a target of around 2,71,000 SC, OBC, EBC and DNT persons and Safai Karamcharis including waste pickers over 2021-22 to 2025-26, on a budget outlay of Rs 450.25 crore, of which Rs 84.00 crore was earmarked for 2022-23 alone, according to a Rajya Sabha answer of 27 July 2022. The figure the ministry put on the record in March 2026 leaves a wide gap against that headcount, with the final year of the approved period already behind it.

Is PM-DAKSH Skill Training Open to New Candidates Right Now?

The candidate registration page on the PM-DAKSH portal has been showing a closed notice for well over a year. It reads "Registration window closed for current Financial Year", above a pop-up reading "Registration window would open shortly". Both lines were already in place in the capture taken in August 2025, and they stand unchanged in the most recent capture, from 12 February 2026. The portal's live address is pmdaksh.dosje.gov.in.

Anyone who wants the training itself should stop watching that portal and register on Skill India Digital Hub instead. The current guidelines already moved candidate registration there, with profile verification by mobile OTP and online counselling to help pick a course and a training centre, per the scheme guidelines the department publishes today.

One caution on dates and rates before anything below is acted on. The department lists exactly one live document against PM-DAKSH, a "Corrigendum to PM-DAKSH Scheme guidelines" with a publish date of 12 Jan 2025 on the scheme page, and the file behind that label is the current guidelines. The earlier guidelines PDF is still served from the same domain, and the portal's own FAQ page was still being served at its last archived capture; both of them contradict the current document on income limits, course lengths and attendance. Every figure below is from the current document unless an earlier vintage is named.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The current guidelines publish no annual calendar, and the department has announced no fresh registration window on the PM-DAKSH portal. The calendar that older articles quote came from the earlier guidelines, which put registration between 1st March and 30th April, document verification and course commencement from 1st April to 30th April for centres with registrations at 1.25 times batch size and 1st May to 31st May for the rest, and a second round of registration from 1st July to 31st July with courses commencing by 31st August, in the timelines section of the older guidelines.

Two dates are firm. The portal and app went live on 07.08.2021 per the department's answer in the Rajya Sabha, and the separate PM-DAKSH budget line stops from 2026-27 under the merger recorded in the demand for grants.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Six things decide it: nationality, age, community, family income, Aadhaar and a bank account tied to that Aadhaar. The guidelines require Indian nationality, an age between 18 and 45 years, an Aadhaar card and an Aadhaar linked bank account, with handholding support offered to candidates who do not yet hold Aadhaar, and they set the income bar at below Rs 3.00 lakh for OBC and EWS candidates with no income limit for SC, DNT or Safai Mitras including waste pickers, in clause 4.1 of the current guidelines.

Two rows there deserve a flag. Transgender persons appear as an eligible group on the department's page with a minimum age of 18 years at assessment, yet the myScheme entry for the scheme lists only SC, OBC, EWS, DNT and Safai Mitras, so a candidate reading only the myScheme record would never learn the route exists. And the EWS row replaced an older EBC category whose ceiling was tighter: the earlier guidelines set annual family income for EBC candidates below Rs 1.00 lakh, in the eligibility clause of the older PM-DAKSH guidelines.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The myScheme entry leaves its exclusions field empty, but the guidelines and the portal between them rule out several candidates who would otherwise fit the income and community tests.

Up-skilling and re-skilling under Recognition of Prior Learning is the narrowest gate. It applies only to Safai Mitras including waste pickers, so an SC or OBC artisan who wants a short refresher rather than a full course has no RPL route under this scheme, per the categorisation of skilling programmes in the current guidelines.

Attendance disqualifies quietly. More than 70% biometric attendance is required for a candidate to appear in the assessment in all types of training, and a candidate below that line finishes the course without a certificate, on the same guidelines document.

A weak income certificate is refused outright. The department states that endorsement by public representatives, Gram Pradhan, Sarpanch, Councilor or notaries will not be acceptable, and that a self-certified income statement needs a Gazetted officer's endorsement, on the scheme page.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Nothing about PM-DAKSH repeats. The portal's own answer is that a person is eligible to undergo training under the skill development training programme only once, and that a person is allowed to participate in only one programme at a time, on the archived PM-DAKSH FAQ. Someone who came through a beautician or carpet-weaving batch one year cannot line up for a second trade the next year on the same scheme.

The scheme itself does not renew either, given the merger into PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana recorded in the 2026-27 demand for grants.

What you get

Award & benefits

Two separate things are paid, and they are easy to run together. The course fee is paid by the Government to the training institute, which is why the department says training is free of cost for the trainees with 100% grants by Government. The stipend is paid to the trainee, and only where attendance holds up. Both statements sit on the department's scheme page.

The stipend condition is stricter than the assessment one and catches people out: only candidates found regular with not less than 70% attendance are eligible for the stipend, and payment is automated off the Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System with no manual intervention, under clause 14.5 of the guidelines.

What a finisher walks away with is a certificate, not a diploma. Assessment is done as per the guidelines of PMKVY 4.0 or any successor scheme of the skill ministry, the certificate reaches the candidate in physical and digital form with corresponding credits under the National Credit Framework, and every candidate is offered one free re-assessment under the Short Term Training component, per clauses 12.1, 12.8 and 12.9.

A fourth category used to exist and no longer does. Long Term Courses for candidates educated to class 10 or above ran for 650 hours or seven months in the older guidelines, and the current three-category list drops them entirely, which matters to anyone who found a year-long PM-DAKSH course in an old news report.

• Key benefits: Training free of cost for the trainees, 100% grants by Government.
• Stipend will be given to trainees during the period of training.
• Trained candidates will be provided certification after successful completion of training and assessment.
• Trained candidates will be provided placement after assessment and certification.
• Category of Skilling Programmes: 1. Up-skilling/Re-skilling under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL): Target Group: Up-skilling / Re-skilling under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) will only be applicable to SafaiMitras including waster pickers who constitute the bottom of the pyramid. - Curriculum: In respect of Safai Mitras including waste pickers, the curriculum will include the programmes on safe & healthy sanitation practices, occupational practices as per relevant and approved Qualification Packs (QPs). Certification would be aligned with the standard process. - Period of Training: The duration of the training programmes will be of approximately 35 hours keeping in mind the occupational hours of the trainees. - Training Cost: The training cost will be limited to extent of Common Cost Norms (CCN) issued by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) as applicable from time to time. - Other Expenses: As the trainees are already employed, they will be paid @₹500/- per person to Safai Mitras including Waste Pickers in the form of stipend, for duration of training of Up-skilling and Re-skilling under RPL, towards compensation of their wage loss, during the period of training.
• 2. Short-Term Courses (focus on wage/self-employment): Target Group: Most disempowered groups belonging to SC/OBC/EWS/DNT and Sanitation Workers including Waste Pickers and their dependents having aspirations to be employed in sectors having good demand in job market with suitable wage. - Curriculum: The Curriculum of the training programmes will be as per National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF)/National Occupational Standard (NOS), issued by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India in various job roles with focus on wage and self-employment opportunities such as self-employed tailors training, furniture making, food processing, carpet weaving, beautician workers, leather work, latex harvesting, tyre fitting along with financial and digital literacy, etc. Training to be delivered through accredited and affiliated training centres. - Period of Training: The duration of the training programmes will be less than 1200 hours, as stipulated in National Occupational Standards (NOS) and Qualification Packs (QPs). - Training Cost: The training cost will be as per Common Cost Norms for NSQF job roles or as stipulated by concerned board as applicable and as amended from time to time. - Other Expenses:
• For non-residential training programmes, the trainees will be paid stipend @ ₹1,500/- per month for SC candidates, ₹1,000/- per month to OBCs/EWSs/DNTs and ₹1,500/- per month to Sanitation Workers including waste pickers and their dependents. 1. For residential training programmes, wherever necessary, the trainees will be provided boarding and lodging and expenses compensated within CCN, for complete duration of the training programmes. No stipend will be separately payable except in case of Safai Mitras, Waste Pickers & their dependents who will be paid ₹500/- per month.
• 3. Entrepreneurial Development Programmes (EDP): Implementing Agency: Ministry will approach National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD) or any other organisation viz Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) under Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship for conducting EDP training.

What to prepare

Documents required

The paperwork splits by community rather than by course. Every applicant brings an Aadhaar card, a photograph, proof of age, residence proof, educational qualification certificates and an Aadhaar linked bank passbook. What sits on top of that is set by the category applied under: a caste certificate for an SC candidate, a category certificate plus an income certificate for OBC and EWS, the self-declaration carrying the community Pradhan's endorsement for DNT, and an occupation certificate for a Safai Karamchari or dependant, as laid out in the target-group table on the department's scheme page.

Who may sign the occupation certificate is defined narrowly, and getting it from the wrong office wastes a cycle: a Local Revenue Officer, Local Municipal Officer, Cantonment Executive Officer, Railway Officer, a departmental head of Gazetted Officer rank, an elected member of a municipal body, a Gram Panchayat Pradhan, or a Regional Manager of a Regional Rural Bank or Public Sector Bank, per the portal's FAQ.

One shortcut is written into the rules. A valid Below Poverty Line card or an Antodaya Anna Yojna card is accepted as commensurate proof that annual family income falls within Rs 1.00 lakh, so a household holding either can skip the income certificate queue, on the scheme page.

Step by step

How to apply

Registration is online, and it has moved. Eligible candidates are required to register on Skill India Digital Hub, with profile verification through mobile-based OTP e-KYC, after which online counselling is offered through the same platform to help select an appropriate course and training centre, under clause 4.2 of the guidelines.

The older route ran through the PM-DAKSH portal and a PM-DAKSH mobile app on the Play Store, both launched by the department on 07.08.2021, as recorded in the 2022 Rajya Sabha answer. That portal address is still the application link the myScheme entry gives, and its candidate registration page carried the closed-window notice quoted earlier at the last public capture.

Choosing the training institute is a separate step from registering, and it comes first. The portal's course listing is filtered first by financial year and then by target group, with separate tables for Scheduled Caste, Other Backward Class including EBC and DNT, Safai Karamchari, and Manual Scavengers, each showing job role, state, city, institute name, address of institute, duration and minimum qualification, on the archived course listing. Pick the row before registering, not after, because the counselling step asks for a job role and a centre.

Tracking a Stipend That Has Not Arrived

A trainee waiting on money has no dashboard to consult. Stipend release is automated off attendance recorded on the AEBAS portal and routed through PFMS and DBT into the candidate's account, so the first thing to check is not the bank but the biometric attendance record at the training centre: a candidate not found regular with not less than 70% attendance is not eligible for the stipend at all, and nothing is generated to chase, per clause 14.5. Batch attendance bites separately, because the institute's own second tranche is released only once the batch has hit 70% AEBAS attendance and half the training is over, under clause 14.7.

When the attendance record is fine and the money still has not moved, the guidelines provide for a grievance redressal mechanism for applicants, training providers and assessors, set up with the department and the programme implementing agency for time bound resolution, under clause 13.2. The practical escalation is the corporation that covers your community, and the numbers are in the contact section below.

How winners are picked

Selection process

The current process is thin by design: the training centre is onboarded on Skill India Digital Hub, a Project Appraisal Committee chaired by a Joint Secretary or Additional Secretary in the department approves empanelment, and targets are allocated to centres in a stated order of preference that puts the Recruit-Train-Deploy model first, where an employer has already given the training provider an offer letter for the skilled candidates, per clauses 5 and 7.3. A candidate is competing for a seat in an already funded batch, not for a merit rank.

A screening step that older write-ups still describe has been removed. Under the earlier guidelines, once the portal closed for applications, candidates who had opted for a particular training institution sat an online psychometric test, and a Selection Committee verified documents before names went back to the institutes, in the older guidelines. No psychometric test appears anywhere in the current document.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Training is entirely classroom-based. The guidelines specify a 100% classroom-based approach with theory and practical conducted physically at the affiliated training centre, with On the Job Training delivered at the centre or on industry premises, so there is no distance or online version of a PM-DAKSH course, under clause 16.2.

Course material is not an extra cost. Raw materials specific to the course are supplied by the training institute to candidates with no separate payment made to the institute for them, and the centre must hand over a facilitator guide and course handbook at the start of the programme, per clauses 14.2 and 16.1.

Trainees have real leverage against a bad centre. Subletting, entered in the compliance table as a franchise model not allowed under the scheme guideline, is rated High alongside a non-existent PM-DAKSH centre, fake enrolments or ghost candidates, mass enrolments and a centre closed at the time of a visit, in Annexure II of the guidelines. A High rating can cost the centre its batch, and a training institute whose written clarification is found unsatisfactory can lose every programme allocated to it with blacklisting initiated on top, under clauses 15.2 and 15.3.

Finally, the department's word is last. Its decision is stated to be final on eligibility, acceptance or rejection of an application and selection of training institutes, with Delhi High Court named as the court of jurisdiction for any dispute, under clauses 16.5 and 16.6.

Get help

Contact

Route a query by community rather than to the ministry's general desk. NBCFDC, which handles OBC, EWS and DNT candidates, publishes a toll free number 18001023399 and a landline 011-45854400 at 5th Floor, NCUI Building, 3 Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, New Delhi 110016. NSKFDC, which handles Safai Karamcharis including waste pickers, is at NTSC, 3rd Floor, E-Block, NSIC, Okhla Industrial Estate III, New Delhi 110020 on 011-26382476. NSFDC, for SC candidates, is at 14th Floor, SCOPE Minar, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi 110 092 on 011-22054392. All three sets of details are published on the PM-DAKSH FAQ page.

The scheme owner is the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment at Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi, and grievances from applicants go to the department and the programme implementing agency under the mechanism in the guidelines.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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References

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