Benefits of ESIC
The Employee State Insurance Scheme (ESI) is one of the largest social security programmes in the world.
It is run by the Employee's State Insurance Corporation, which is part of the Government of India's Ministry of Labour and Employment.
About 13 crores (130 million) Indians, including Insured Employees and their dependents, get mostly sickness benefits and a few other benefits from ESI.
ESIC includes six main social security benefits, as well as other extended benefits that are mostly based on need.
One impressive thing about this plan is that it doesn't care who an employee is when it comes to giving them money.
Even though the percentage of contribution each employee makes stays the same. It is dependent on his/her work wages.
So, an ESIC account gives you the following safety nets:
History of ESIC:
Since it began in 1952, the ESIC scheme has come a long way. It was a big deal that the Parliament did that.
At the time, industrialization in India was just getting started, and only a small number of factories needed people.
The law was passed at a time when the country's economy was getting worse.
Creating a multidimensional social security system to protect the interests of the working class with legal provisions was a first of its kind and a remarkable move that will go down in history.
Applicability and Scope of Coverage:
This scheme applies to all of India and all businesses with 10 or more workers that are registered under the Factories Act or the Shops and Establishments Act.
If an employee makes less than or equal to Rs. 21,000 per month, their employer must cover them under the ESIC scheme.
Benefits of ESIC for Employees
ESIC Medical Benefits:
As soon as an employee starts an insurable job, he or she and his or her family start getting full medical benefits.
The ESIC insurance also covers insured retirees and employees who are permanently disabled, as well as their spouses, for an annual premium of Rs. 120.
Sickness Benefit:
This ESIC benefit pays out an amount equal to 70% of an employee's average daily wage for up to 91 days a year if they need to take time off work because of illness.
For the employee to get this benefit, he or she must work for the company for 78 days during a half-yearly contribution period.
This group also includes Extended Sickness Benefits, which help pay for medical costs for cancer and long-term illnesses at an increased rate of 80% of the average daily wage.
Maternity Benefit:
This benefit pays an insured woman 100% of her average wage for twenty-six weeks of maternity leave from the time she gives birth, and it can be extended for another month.
The worker needs to have contributed for 70 days in the two contributions before this one.
It also pays for 6 weeks of benefits if the pregnancy doesn't work out, and 12 weeks if the child is adopted.
Unemployment Allowance:
This is part of the Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana, which gives financial help to people who lose their jobs due to things like :
- the company going out of business,
- Pandemic
- becoming permanently disabled, being laid off, etc.
if they have worked an insurable job for at least three years. Under this benefit, an injured worker with an ESIC account can get medical help from ESI hospitals or clinics.
The allowance is equal to 50% of the worker's wages for up to two years. ESIC also covers the cost of travel to a vocational training centre.
Disability Benefit:
The disability benefit pays money to an injured worker who is either permanently or temporarily disabled.
90 percent of the person's wage is paid to him if he becomes disabled because of an occupational hazard.
The same amount is also paid to the person's family or dependents as a Dependent's Benefit if the insured employee dies.
Other Benefits: If an employee has an ESIC account, he or she will also get help with things like:
Other Benefits
• Funeral Expenses:
Rs. 15,000 is given to an insured worker's dependents to cover the funeral costs.
• Confinement Expenses:
If an insured female worker or an insured person with a wife is confined in a place where medical help from the ESI scheme is not easy to get, they can get Rs. 5,000 in financial help.
• Vocational Rehabilitation.
Employees who are permanently disabled and have an ESIC account can get Vocational Rehabilitation.
• Physical rehabilitation
Employees who get hurt on the job and are physically unable to work are given physical rehabilitation.
• Old Age Medical Care
Old Age Medical Care is for insured workers who have reached retirement age.
Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana
ESIC Scheme has come like an angel and is helping its subscribers during this pandemic like no other: Millions of jobs are being lost every month because of the current pandemic.
The Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana (ABVKY), a welfare programme under Section 2(9) of the ESI Act, gives cash compensation to people who are out of work.
For three months, compensation has been raised from 25% of the monthly wage to 50% of the monthly wage as an exception (applicable from 24th March-31st December 2020).
You can only get this benefit once in your whole life.
Each person who gets help from the unemployment scheme will get no more than Rs. 31,500/-.
To get unemployment benefits under ABVKY, the insurer must have worked for at least two years before becoming unemployed, and he or she must have paid into the system for at least 78 days.
After 30 days, the allowance amount will be paid. In the past, people could get help after being out of work for 90 days.
The Atal Yojana was started in 2018 and was supposed to last for two years.
However, given the situation, the ESIC has decided to extend the programme for one more year, until June 30, 2019.
ESIC Benefits for the Future:
Under Section 1(5) of the ESIC Act, the scheme has been expanded to include :
- shops,
- hotels,
- movie theatres,
- restaurants,
- newspaper businesses,
- road-motor transport undertakings,
- insurance businesses,
- non-banking financial companies,
- airport authorities,
- warehousing businesses,
- educational institutions,
- private medical institutions,
- casual and contract employees of Municipal Corporations/Bodies.
Conclusion
The scheme is growing all over India and now covers 566 Districts (381 fully notified and 185 partially notified) in 34 States and Union Territories.
By 2021, the goal is to cover 700+ Districts.
About 3.49 crores of people are covered by the Scheme, and about 13.32 crores are beneficiaries. Of these, 51.2 lakh are women.
Beneficiaries will also be able to use the services of hospitals, health centres, and dispensaries that are part of the Central Government's Ayushman Bharat Scheme.
The fact that ESIC has features and data that can't be found anywhere else shows that it has the best social security programme.
It is not just in India, but around the world, and that it adds millions of new members every year to protect their health.
This has been going on since the programme started 70 years ago.