Making Internships and Apprenticeships Work: Why Stipends Alone Won’t Do

Government of India's PM Internship Scheme (PMIS) pilot was ambitious on paper. 1 lakh internships were sought to be created, and more than 1.2 lakh internship positions were posted by the participating companies. But despite big scope and even bigger posting numbers, the offtake was poor: recent government-reported figures show less than 10,000 joined — a rather large drop between offers and actual joiners. Reported reasons include location, internship duration, pursuit of higher studies, and inadequate financial support. 

The PMIS stipend package is ₹5,000/month plus a one-time joining grant of ₹6,000. Official guidance says ₹500/month is expected from the partner company (CSR) and the remaining ₹4,500 is DBT by the government.

Moving to another town costs more than a one-time ₹6,000: airfare/bus/train, deposit + first month’s rent, food, commuting. ₹5,000/month won’t reliably cover shared rent + meals in many industrial towns.

That up-front and recurring cash gap is exactly where joinings evaporate: candidates either decline, accept then drop off, or prefer local/unpaid/education routes.

Therefore, the truth is simple: the stipend is too low to support relocation. For a young person from a rural or small-town background, moving to an industrial hub becomes financially impossible.

This is where the scheme needs re-thinking. If the government wants internships and apprenticeships to be genuinely attractive, it must look beyond stipends and directly address the housing challenge.

The central government is already building industrial cities across the country — eight are under construction, a dozen more have been approved, and in the long term, a hundred such cities are planned. These are exactly the places where hostels for interns and apprentices should be built. Secure, affordable hostels would remove the biggest barrier to joining — and allow young people to focus on the skills they’re there to learn. The government already has the financial architecture (NICDP, CSR-link in PMIS, NAPS) — it needs a targeted policy tweak: treat accommodation as a first-class element of internship/apprenticeship design, not an optional add-on.

Companies like Foxconn and Tata Electronics already provide on-site housing for their blue-collar employees. Extending this model to interns/apprentices, even if only for a year, would mean companies could recruit from a much wider talent pool — not just within their state, but across entire regions like South India or West India. It would also help build a culture of mobility, where technical trainees are willing and able to move for opportunities.

Equally important is building a placement culture in our technical schools and even in senior secondary schools. Right now, “campus placements” are a buzzword we associate with private universities. Why shouldn’t government schools and ITIs (or, as I would prefer, Udyog Vidyalayas) proudly host placement drives, inviting industries to recruit apprentices directly on campus? It would not only help match supply and demand more efficiently, but also lend dignity to apprenticeships as a career path.

With these two changes — hostels for interns/apprentices in industrial cities, and a placement culture in schools and training institutes — PMIS (and NAPS) can overcome its current stumbling block. The stipend problem may linger on, but it will no longer be the deal-breaker. Young people will see internships/apprenticeships as both possible and respectable, and companies will see them as practical and scalable.

After all, industries are built in factories, not just in offices. If India wants a strong industrial backbone, it must ensure that the next generation of factory employees and leaders can start their journey without being derailed by something as basic as housing.

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