The Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Scheme: It’s Benefits & Awareness

Abstract

 The Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Scheme provides comprehensive medical cover and cash benefits to the insured persons and their dependents in the unforeseen contingencies. However, the effectiveness of the scheme can be best judged through the facilities and benefits it provides to the insured persons. It is very much essential to assess the perceptions of the insured persons and their employers from time to time regarding the effectiveness of the service provided by the Corporation under the ESI Scheme. The ESI benefits to be effective, there should have awareness among the insured persons about the various benefits provided by the Corporation under the ESI Scheme and also to aware about the various sources through which this awareness are gathered. Hence, this paper focuses on the awareness level of the insured persons (IPs) regarding availing the ESI benefits and also to explore about the sources of awareness as perceived by the insured persons (IPs) working in factories and establishments in the North Eastern States of India. The study is purely based on primary data and a total number of 150 insured persons (IPs) from three different states, viz. Assam, Tripura and Manipurare interviewed for incorporating their views regarding awareness level and sources of awareness of the ESI benefits.