Union Cabinet approved extension of the RSBY Scheme to all Registered Domestic Workers

The Union Cabinet on 23 June 2011 approved extension of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) to all the registered domestic workers in India.  The scheme will likely cover approximately 47.50 lakh domestic workers in the country. The RSBY will provide for smart card based cashless health insurance cover of Rs.30000 per annum to BPL workers (a unit of five) in unorganised sector in any empanelled hospital anywhere in India. More than 2.34 crore smart cards were issued on 31 May 2011. 

The health insurance cover, available to domestic workers in the 18-59 age bracket, will entitle the beneficiary to cashless treatment at empanelled hospitals. This can be done with the help of a smart card that would be issued to those covered under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), which is now expected to cover around 47.5 lakh workers. The beneficiaries will have to get identification certificates from two of the four eligible institutions namely- employer, residents welfare association, registered trade union or the local police.

The scheme has since then been extended to building and other construction workers registered with Welfare Boards constituted under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, street vendors, beedi workers and such MNREGA workers who have worked for more than 15 days during the preceding year.

Distribution of Scheme Cost between Centre & State

The funds will be allocated from the National Social Security Fund for Unorganised Workers.  The premium will be shared by the Central and State Governments in the ratio of 75:25.  In case of States in NE Regional and J&K the ratio is 90:10. The scheme is expected to cost the Centre around Rs 30 crore during 2011-12, with the spending projected to rise to over Rs 74 crore in 2012-13.

About Domestic Workers

Domestic work forms one of the largest sectors of female employment in the urban areas.  Domestic workers are unorganized and the sector remains unregulated and unprotected by labour laws.  These workers come from vulnerable communities and backward areas.  Most of these are poor, vulnerable, illiterate, unskilled and do not understand the urban labour market.