Govt to set up platform for social security schemes: Sinha

Government is considering to put in place a universal social security platform through which all government benefits would be transferred, including the proposed cashless hospitalisation for BPL families.
In order to help all citizens access the social security platform, he said the government is trying to build the coverage through the post offices and bank mitras.
"Once the social security platform is out there and it is accessible to all citizens we will start to put other products on top of it and one of the first products that we will consider is the one announced in Budget where BPL families will be covered up to Rs 1 lakh of hospitalisation coverage," Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said at the 10th Civil Services Day here.

In the Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed that the government will launch a new health protection scheme, which will provide health cover up to Rs 1 lakh per family to as serious illness of family members cause severe stress on the financial circumstances of poor and economically weak families, shaking the foundation of their economic security.
The social security platform requires one database of Indian citizens and unique ID for citizens through Aadhaar. Besides, it needs to have certain demographic information to decide whether an individual is eligible for certain government programmes or not.
"So now you can imagine a situation where poor person goes to a certified hospital, where he is identified what treatment is required, then Aadhaar is used for identification and then he can avail cashless treatment benefit without dipping into his limited savings. This is the kind of platform that we want to build on and what is happening with Jan Dhan Yojana it is the beginning foundation of all these," Sinha said.

Under Jan Dhan Yojana, 21.5 crore bank accounts have been opened with a total balance of Rs 36,600 crore.