ESIC clears direct hospital management, extends unemployment benefit scheme

Corporation approves direct management of upcoming ESI hospitals, extends the Atal Beemit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana till June 2027, and clears new medical education and healthcare initiatives

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) on Tuesday approved a range of measures covering healthcare infrastructure, medical education and administration, including a decision to directly manage all upcoming and newly commissioned ESI hospitals and extend the Atal Beemit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana (ABVKY) by another year.

 

The decisions were taken at the 198th meeting of the corporation, chaired by Union Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in New Delhi.

 

Under the new policy, all upcoming and newly commissioned ESI hospitals will be managed directly by ESIC. Hospitals currently being run by state governments that are undergoing reconstruction or upgradation will continue under state management unless the respective state government opts to hand them over to the corporation.

 

ESIC also extended the Atal Beemit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana, which provides unemployment allowance to insured persons, for one year from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027.

 

The corporation also approved a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Ayush to integrate Ayush services into ESIC's healthcare system. The framework is intended to support the delivery of Ayush-based services within ESIC facilities and strengthen capacity in managing occupational and lifestyle-related health conditions.

 

In medical education, ESIC approved in principle the establishment of a dental college with undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at ESIC Medical College and Hospital, Basaidarapur, New Delhi. It also approved setting up a medical college at Haridwar with an annual intake of 50 MBBS students from the 2027-28 academic session, using the existing ESIC hospital infrastructure.

 

ESIC is the statutory body that administers the Employees' State Insurance (ESI) scheme, India's social security programme for workers in the organised sector. It provides medical care and cash benefits, including sickness, maternity, disability and dependent benefits, to insured workers and their families through a network of hospitals, dispensaries and empanelled healthcare providers.

 

The meeting also approved the Employees' State Insurance (General) Regulations, 2026, under the Code on Social Security, 2020, replacing the existing 1950 regulations. It adopted a consolidated memorandum of understanding for state ESI societies in line with the new legal framework.

 

It also cleared the establishment of five new sub-regional offices in Meghalaya, Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh), Rajkot (Gujarat), Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) and Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) to support service delivery, compliance monitoring and administrative decentralisation.