Government extends ESI scheme to 610 districts across the country

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Labor and Employment Rameshwar Teli said the government notified the ESI scheme on March 31, 2023, in all states and union territories except the union territory of Lakshadweep.

The minister said that out of 744 districts in the country, the ESI scheme has been extended to 610 districts, including 492 fully covered and 118 partially covered districts.

Presently, there are 160 ESI hospitals across the country, out of which 51 hospitals are directly run by the ESI Corporation and 109 hospitals run by state governments under the ESI scheme, the Ministry of Labor and Employment said in a statement.

The ministry further said, “Apart from ESI beneficiaries, other patients can also avail medical services from underutilized hospitals of ESIC on user fee basis.”

Around 28,000 new establishments were registered under the ESI scheme in December 2022 and 18.86 lakh new employees were added during the month. said the provisional payroll data of the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme (ESI Scheme) released for February 2023.

The Employees’ State Insurance Scheme is an integrated measure of social insurance embodied in the Employees’ State Insurance Act and is designed to fulfill the function of protection against the impact of events on ’employees’ as defined in the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948. disease, among others.