As per the provisional payroll data of ESIC, released by the ministry of labour and employment on Monday, around 19,000 new establishments have been registered and brought under the social security umbrella of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation in the month of March, 2023, thus ensuring more coverage.
Further, employees up to 25 years of age constitute 48% of the total workforce employed in the formal sector under ESIC. This is 0.82 million out of the total 1.73 million formal workers added in May.
While the female employees added to the scheme in the month under consideration stood at 0.33 million, 41 transgender employees also got registered under the ESI scheme in March, 2023.
“It shows that ESIC is committed to deliver its benefits to every section of the society,” the ministry said, adding that the payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise.
Employees’ State Insurance Corporation is one of the two main statutory social security organisations under the ministry of labour and the employment, the other being the Employees’ Provident Fund Organistaion. The fund is managed by ESIC according to rules and regulations stipulated in the ESI Act 1948.
All employees earning up to Rs 21,000 per month as wages contribute 0.75% of their wages while the employer contributes 3.25%, taking the total contribution to 4%, which is used to provide medical and cash benefits to the employees and their family.The employees registered under the scheme are entitled to medical treatment for themselves and their dependents, unemployment cash benefit in certain contingencies and maternity benefit in case of women employees.
In case of employment-related disablement or death, there is provision for a disablement benefit and a family pension respectively.
The scheme had 33.9 million insured persons and 131.6 million beneficiaries as of January 2023.