EMPLOYEE STATE INSURANCE SCHEME

Employees' State Insurance scheme (ESI) is a self-financing social security and health insurance scheme for Indian workers. ESI was started in India in 1948, initially for factory workers

This scheme is available for employees having salary less than 15,000 per month. This fund is managed by the ESI Corporation, which oversees the provision of medical and other benefits to the employees, through its large network of dispensaries and hospitals throughout India.

The employees registered under the scheme are entitled to:

1. medical treatment for themselves and their dependants, 2. unemployment cash benefit in certain contingencies, 3. maternity benefit in case of women employees. 4. In case of employment-related disablement or death, 5. there is provision for a disablement benefit and 6. a family pension, respectively

Outpatient medical facilities

Available in 1398 ESI dispensaries, and through 1678 empanelled private medical practitioners.

Inpatient care
Available in 145 ESI Hospitals and 42 Hospital annexes; a total of 19387 beds.

In addition, several state government hospitals also have beds for exclusive use of ESI Beneficiaries. Cash benefits can be availed in any of 783 ESI centres located throughout India.

 Recent years have seen increasing role of information technology in ESI, with the introduction of Pehchan smart cards in 'Project Panchdeep', India's largest e-governance project. In addition to insured workers, poor families eligible under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana can also avail facilities in ESI hospitals and dispensaries. There are plans to open medical, nursing and paramedical schools in ESI hospitals