Consultative Committee Meeting for Labour and Employment Emphasises for better Medical Services by ESIC

Consultative Committee Meeting for Labour and Employment Emphasises for better Medical Services by ESIC

A meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Labour & Employment was held under the chairmanship of Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Union Minister of Labour and Employment in New Delhi today . The agenda for discussion was the functioning of the Directorate General of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation.

At the outset Shri Kharge while highlighting the role of ESIC in providing Medical Health care to employees working in the organized sector across the country emphasized upon the expansion of Corporations coverage area in boosting up the medical care and cash benefits in the contingencies of sickness, maternity, disablement and death due to employment injury. He said the current year being the Golden Jubilee year of the foundation of ESIC it is imperative that all out efforts be made to enhance the preventive, curative and rehabilitative services under the ESIC run medical Schemes.

During the meeting a presentation was made by the Director General of ESIC Shri C.S. Kedar. He said so far the ESIC has insured 1.53 crore persons of which 0.26 crore are women. Currently there are 5.95 crore ESIC beneficiaries and there 4.06 lakh factories/establishments in the country. The ESIC coverage is in 29 States/UTs with 51 ROs, SROs and Divisional Offices and 797 branch/pay offices.

Shri Kedar said during the current year up to 1st July 2011ESIC schemes have been implemented in 38 area covering 0.77 lakh employees of the targeted 1.88 lakh employees in 52 areas.

It was informed in the meeting that due to several constraints the old dues pending amounts to Rs.1368.36 crore and it is due to the non-traceability of employer and, inadequacy of the assets of the employer and stayed by the courts. It was also informed that the majority of medical infrastructure is provided by the State governments which is upto 95 per cent. Of the total 1404 dispensary the State government possesses 1368 dispensary by the ESI run only in the country. Similarly of the 149 hospital the ESIC share is 32, the expenditure on medical care between ESIC and the State government is in the ratio of 7 is to 1. The medical expenditure in 2010-11 worth to the tune of Rs.2124 crore during the current year it is expected to Rs 3583 crore. The ESIC has also allocated Rs.305 crore for super speciality treatment during the current financial year.

On the side of initiative it was told that ESIC has decided to set up Medical Education projects all over the country to ensure availability of medical and para-medical manpower for its large infrastructure, upgrade its infrastructure, improve the quality of medical care services, provide comprehensive services under one roof, 06 post-graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (PGIMSRs) have been commissioned, ESIC Dental College, Rohini Delhi started from academic session 2010-11 with 50 annual BDS intake and 18 medical colleges are proposed to be set up.

Expressing satisfaction on the efforts of ESIC as well as the Ministry of Labour and Employment the members emphasised the need to upscale the efficiency and quality of services provided by the ESICs in the medical care areas. They also emphasised to improve the standard of services provided by the ESI of that the workers could be asked to prefer the ESI services rather than to go for treatment in the private sector. It was highlighted by the members that the quality of education provided by the private medical college being below standard efforts should be made to establish high class education in the medical field by the ESIC.

The members participated in the meeting were S/Shri Gurudas Das Gupta, Badriram Jhakar, Kamlesh Paswan, Ramsunder Das and Anandrao Vithoba Adsul. Besides Secretary Labour Shri Prabhat C.Chaturvedi, and other senior officials of the Ministry were present in the meeting.