10,000 craftsmen families to be insured

About 10,000 more craftsmen families in Orissa will be covered under health insurance this year under the Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthya Bima Yojana (RGSSBY).

In Orissa, around 30,000 families of artisans have already been covered under the scheme so far and efforts are on to cover another 10,000 families during the current year, said Biswa Mohan Mishra, assistant director of Development Commission (handicrafts) of the Government of India.

Mishra was here to attend the Craft Bazar, an annual, national-level fair of handicrafts and handlooms.

There are around 1.50 lakh families of craftsmen in the state practicing at least 50 trades of the handicrafts.

Under RGSSBYA, the artisans are entitled to welfare benefits like highly subsidized insurance scheme, educational assistance for the children, accidental benefit of Rs one lakh and medical assistance to four members of the family.

The Government of India has entered into an agreement with ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited to implement this health insurance scheme.

The beneficiaries of the scheme have to pay an annual premium of Rs 150 if they belong to the general caste while the SC, STs and OBCs (Other Backward Classes) need to pay a premium of Rs 75. The Government of India pays a matching premium amount of Rs 650 for the general class people and Rs 725 for the SC, ST and OBCs.

“Our emphasis is to cover more and more number of artisans under this highly subsidized health insurance scheme”, Mishra said.

Stating that handicraft products worth about Rs 200 crore exported from Orissa through different organizations, Mishra said the Centre has taken several measures to boost the sector. These measures include training, marketing, design development, skill up-gradation, export-promotion, organizing buyer-seller meets and ensuring common service centres in the state.

“We are not interested to include more products, but we want to promote the existing items”, he said.

The major handicraft products of the state are silver filigree, appliqué, stone and wood carvings, brass and bell-metal works, horn carvings, terracotta and patta paintings.