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Editor's Note: Sh. B.K. Sahu is an experienced administrator with long track record of working with ESIC. Presently, he is

working as Insurance Commissioner responsible for looking after Social Securities benefits meant for 1.5crore

beneficiaries. Sh. Sahu has actively participated in many conferences including International Conferences on Social

Security held in Warsaw, Poland and Singapore. He had also organised training programmes for the Korean's Government

in Seol (Korea). The forgoing article has been specially contributed by him on our request for which the Editorial Board is

greatful to him.

On the recent concluded

Indian Labour Conference, it

was universally agreed by all

stakeholders of the working

population of the country i.e. Trade

Unions, Employers, State

Governments and the Central

Government that there is a need for

minimum social security for the

unorganized workers which

constitute 94% of the working

population and to strengthen existing

social security regulations i.e. ESI

Scheme and EPFOfor the organized

workers. The key issue is to have a

model that will reach out to the

unorganized workers working mainly

as contract or casual workers in

various industries and

establishments and importantly to

the increasing groups like Asha and

Anganwadi workers and other

similarly placed women workers in

the country. Can we have a model i.e.

cost effective and delivery of service

is efficient and monitoring is easy to

achieve the objective of social

22 August 2013 Vol. 9 Issue 6 PARIVAHAN PRAGATI _

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[ Social Security]

security for all sayby 2020.

Ofcourse, we have Rashtriya

Swasthya Beema Yojna catering to

mainly BPL workers but with limited

access to health care and total lack

of cash compensation during illness,

accident and death, a model similar

to ESI Scheme could be adopted

by the Central and State

Governments.

Presently, Employees' State

Insurance Scheme of Government of

India is a unique scheme in that in a

single contribution of 1.75%

(employees' contribution) and 4.75%

(employer's contribution) it is

providing medical care in the form of

primary, secondary and tertiary

services with no cap to workers

engaged in factories/ establishments,

with about 800corporate hospitals in

various States, besides 149 number

of hospitals and dispensaries run by

ESIScheme throughout the country.

The uniqueness of the scheme is that

it provides life insurance along with

health insuranceas above in the form

of cash benefits for sickness for 91

days and for specified long-term

disease upto 730 days, the maternity

benefit under the scheme is one of

the highest in the country payablefor

84 days_~nd another 4 weeks incertain agencies. It also provides

disablement benefit in case of loss of

earning capacity due to accident and

importantly Dependants Benefit on

death of insuredworker to the spouse

till she isaliveand to other dependant

family members with some

conditions.

Few historic decisions taken in the

recent time have really empowered

the workers covered under ESI Act

likepayment of cash benefits through

ECSso that there is no interface with

providers of services thereby

eliminating the scope for harassment

and ensuring delivery of cash benefit

at their doorsteps. Fewother unique

decisions which can be called as

good practicesare no requirement of

claim for disablement and

Dependants Benefit and submission

of live certificate once in a year and

importantly revising benefit rates

with cost of living index. While thereis a demand for increasing minimum

pensionwhich is as low as RS.250/-in

EPFO,ESIhastaken a decision fixing

minimum dependants benefit (family

pension) to RS.1200per month w.eJ

1.3.2012. Recently, initiatives taken

by ESI Corporation for coverage of

Cine Workers engaged in Film and

TV production is worth mentioning

here.

With adoption of Information

Technology starting from registrationof workers and factories/

establishmentsto delivery of services

and the issue of smart card for 'Any

time Any Where' services is a

significant step which will ensurethat

technology driven services will not

only improve efficiency but ensuring

hassle-free services to beneficiaries

ofthe scheme.

As on today, ESISchemecovers 1.55

million workers with 40 million

family members and one significant

aspect of the scheme is that it

covers all types of workers including

casual/contract workers working in

factories/ establishment covered

under ESI Act and popularly it is

told that "Pay a h andful of

contribution but take a bagful of

benefits."

While organizedworkers are having a

self-contained benefits scheme

providing both health and cash

benefits like ESI Scheme as

discussed earlier, we may have to

evolve a model on similar line for

providing minimum health care and

limited cash compensation in the

contingencies of sickness,

disablement and death for which

think tank of providers of social

security services including Planning

Commission should come forward so

that their dream of social security for

all by 2020isrealized.

(Discliamer: The views expressed in this

article are personal views of the author.)