Shri Bhupender Yadav says that the government is working to increase the medical infrastructure of ESIC manifold from 19,000 beds to 28,000 beds and from 160 hospitals to 241 hospitals

The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) completed 71 years of its service to the workers and their family members today.  To commemorate this occasion Union Minister for Labour & Employment, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Shri Bhupender Yadav, today, launched ESIC Special Services Fortnight for holding various activities, viz. seminar/awareness camps, health check-up camps, yoga, ayush and nutrition camps with special emphasis on millets in line with Shree Ann, cleanliness drive, grievance redressal, clearance of pending bills/claims of insured workers/dependants, etc. from 24.02.2023 to 10.03.2023 on the theme “Better Healthcare & Social Security” at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.

The Union Minister said that the government is working to increase the medical infrastructure of ESIC manifold from 19,000 beds to 28,000 beds and from 160 hospitals to 241 hospitals. He added that the Social Security Code 2020 has been designed in a way to realize the dream of achieving the motto of Ease of Doing & Ease of Living for sustainable and inclusive growth for workers and the nation. He congratulated the employees of ESIC on this occasion. 

Union Minister of State for Labour & Employment and Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri Rameswar Teli, who also graced the function, applauded the efforts and journey made by ESIC during the last seven decades. Secretary, Labour & Employment, Ms Arti Ahuja emphasized on the approach which includes better outreach, social responsibility and execution of task for increasing the coverage of ESIC in future.

Director General, ESIC, Dr. Rajendra Kumar mentioned that ESIC has taken a giant leap in modernising itself by incorporating cutting edge information technology enabled services for betterment in providing services to the stakeholders. ESIC will have to play a bigger role in an unprecedented way with the implementation of Social Security Code.

Deputy Director, ILO, Mr Satoshi Sasaki also graced the function and mentioned about the decades old partnership of ESIC and ILO for working towards providing social security to the workers of the country. Mr. Pratik Parashar and Ms. Adiba Khan, the winners of Architectural Design competition for the ESIC Hospitals at Sanand and Kalol, Gujarat, were also given awards during the function. 

Two panel discussions on “Leveraging Technology for Next Generation Healthcare in ESIC” and “Reaching the Unreached through ESI Scheme” were also held during the event. Role of information and communication technologies and leveraging technology for better and effective outcomes in health sector and increasing the outreach by bringing the workers of unorganized sector under the ambit of social security schemes were deliberated upon.

Many distinguished keynote speakers like CEO I/c, NHA, Shri S Gopalakrishnan, DG (IT), Election Commission of India, Dr. Neeta Verma, Director, AIIMS, Delhi, Dr. M. Srinivas,   Member ESIC & ASSOCHAM, Prof. Saurabh Agarwal, Member, ESIC, Dr. K.K. Agarwal,  National Secretary, Laghu Udhyog Bharti & Member, ESIC,  Shri Sunil Sirsikar,  SLEA, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Shri Alok Chandra, General Secretary, TUCC & Member, ESIC, Shri Sheo Prasad Tiwari,  MD, Hindustan Tin Works Ltd. & Member, ESIC Shri Sanjay Bhatia,  and National General Secretary, AOII, Member CBT, EPFO, Shri S.K. Sharma, shared their knowledge and experiences and discussed the ideas during the seminar.

Besides, many senior officers/officials of Ministry of Labour & Employment, ESIC and EPFO also graced the event.

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MJPS/SSV