Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) during its 184th Meeting held on Monday under the chairmanship of Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Labour & Employment (Independent Charge), Govt. of India has taken several significant decisions to improve its service delivery mechanism and strengthen the medical infrastructure benefiting its insured workers.
Relaxation in contributory conditions to avail sickness benefit to the insured women availing maternity benefit
After the enhancement in duration of maternity benefit from 12 weeks to 26 weeks, in some cases insured women were not eligible to avail sickness benefit in the corresponding benefit period after availing maternity benefit as the mandatory contributory conditions of minimum 78 days were not met.
In such cases, it has now been decided that an insured women will be qualified to claim sickness benefit in the corresponding benefit period if the contribution in her respect were paid or payable for not less than half the number of days available for working in such shorter contribution period.
Relaxation in contributory conditions to avail sickness and maternity benefits for the benefit period of January to June, 2021
The pandemic resulted in the non-entitlement to avail sickness and maternity benefits for many insured persons/women as the mandatory days of contribution couldn’t be met. Considering the hardship being faced by insured persons, ESIC has now decided to extend the relief to the IPs by relaxing the contributory conditions for availing the sickness and maternity benefits for the benefit period of January to June. Now, an insured Woman will be entitled to avail maternity benefit, if the contributions in respect of her were payable not less than 35 days in immediately preceding two consecutive contribution periods.
In case of IPs/IWs appointed before the contribution period April-September, 2020, the eligibility condition will be decided on the basis of their contribution in previous contribution period i.e. September ‘2019 to March ‘2020, whereas, the IPs/IWs appointed during the contribution period April-September, 2020 will be eligible for sickness benefit in the benefit period January-June ‘2021 if contribution in respect of them were payable for not less than half the number of days available for working to them during the contribution period April-September ‘2020.
ESIC to construct 300 bedded hospital including 50 super specialty beds at Haridwar, Uttarakhand
To meet the medical services needs of IPs in Haridwar and surrounding districts, the ESI Corporation has decided to construct 300 bedded ESIC Hospital including 50 bedded super specialty beds and staff quarters in five acres of land at Haridwar, Uttarakhand. After construction, the hospital will provide medical care services to around 2.55 lakh insured workers and their family members.
ESIC to construct 350 bedded hospital with additional 50 bedded SST wing at Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
The ESI Corporation has approved the project of construction of 350 bedded hospital with an additional 50 bedded SST wing and 128 staff quarters in a plot area of 8.72 acres (approx.) at Sheelanagar, Vishakhapatnam. The proposed hospital, after construction, will provide medical services to around 14 lakh beneficiaries covered under ESI scheme in Vishakhapatnam and surrounding areas.
Establishment of negative pressure ICU at ESIC super specialty hospital and medical college at Hyderabad, Telangana
The decision to establish Negative Pressure ICU at ESIC Super Specialty Hospital & Medical College at Hyderabad, Telangana was also taken during the meeting. The establishment of Negative Pressure ICU will decrease the burden of infection to the healthcare workers and the secondary infections to other critically ill patients admitted in the ICU.
Revise estimates
The ESI corporation has also approved the revised estimates and budget estimates for the year 2020-21 & 2021-22 and performance budget for the year 2021-22 during the meeting.
Besides these, around 25 other agenda items pertaining to improvement in service delivery mechanism were also reported and approved. The other dignitaries were Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. of India, Anuradha Prasad, Additional Secretary, MoLE, GoI & Director General, ESIC, members of ESI Corporation, Sandhya Shukla, Financial Commissioner, ESIC, Garima Bhagat, CVO, ESIC and many others.
