Employees' State Insurance

The Employees' State Insurance Scheme provides social security to workers in organized industry and some other sectors of employment. It was introduced in West Bengal, with the issuance of Notification U/s. 1(3) of the E.S.I. Act, 1948, w.e.f. 14th August, 1955. The Scheme is the largest Social Security Scheme of the Government of India for the workmen employed in Factories / Establishments throughout the country. It is a complete Social Security Scheme, which provides various Cash Benefits and Medical Benefit to the workers and their families through single contribution under the Scheme. The ESI Scheme is based on the principle of 'pooling of risks and resources' in which every contributor, at any given point of time, emerges as a beneficiary of a benefactor and society at large is the net gainer. Employees, Employers, State Governments& the ESI Corporation are the major stake holders in the system of organized and coordinated effort providing social protection to benefactors. The role of employers in particular remains pivotal to the success of the scheme, be it surveys for coverage, implementation, registration of factories/ establishments, registration of employees, regular payment of contribution, facilitating inspections and timely action to ensure steady flow of benefits to the employees. Please know that the wage ceiling for coverage of employees under the ESI Act has been enhanced from Rs. 10,000/= p/m to Rs. 15,000/= p/m with effect from 01.05.2010. Necessary gazette notification can be found in www.esic.nic.in.