Employee Insurance Scheme not upto its promise
By Manisha Yadav
Employees State Insurance is a government initiated scheme started in 1952 to benefit the workers in terms of social-economic security. The employee and employer deposit a small percentage of their salary every month to avail the insurance later during emergency through any ESI centres. This scheme entitles those enrolled to cash benefits in times of sickness, disablement, accidents, employment injury. According the ESI act of 1948, people can avail the benefit from the time one enters insurable employment.
I Paid a Bribe has received many reports that speak about the corruption in the system.
A respondent from Bangalore reported that his sister had a difficult time in gaining access to her deposited money in time to save her son in coma. The reporter pointed out that even though his sister was registered in November 2011 for a temporary ESI card, money for ESI was deducted from her salary every month from March/April 2011! In order to qualify for sickness benefit the insured worker is required to contribute for 78 days in a contribution period of 6 months. Unfortunately his nephew expired and his sister had to bear the expenses of
Another respondent from Bangalore talked about the time when he was not able to retrieve money in time for his wife’s delivery. The respondent received a call asking to pay Rs 1500 in order to process a cheque of Rs 14,000. Little did they know that they would be tricked.The officials rejected their claim with excuses of wrong spelling and technical errors delaying them inordinately to a point that they gave up.
As per the records till March 2011, Coverage rate of ESI is as follows:
No. of Employers- 4.43 Lacs
No. of Employees - 1.54 Crores
Total No. of Beneficiaries- 6.02 Crores
No. of Insured Person family units - 1.55 Crores
No. of Insured women -0.25 Crores
A trusted system like ESI can benefit a lot more if it wakes up to the grievances of many people.