Narrator: From past 3 weeks, we heard many things about ESI. Now we can hear the answers for the questions asked by our audience. 1) Law says that all the workers of the company should be made the arrangement of ESI. If the organisation is denying to give the facility, where can we give a complaint and get the ESI facility? Ans: ESI coverage should be given to the worker from the time he joins. If a company is not giving, there is an exclusive office for ESI, and there is an officer for that. You can give a complaint to him. Maybe sometimes, ESI coverage may not be applicable to that area. If there is an ESI hospital the 10 km surrounding areas companies will be covered. If there is no ESI hospital nearby, your company should have joined you with any insurance company. So its not just ESI it can be any other insurance coverage. So there are 2 types in it. You can make use of it. 2) Many of the workers complain that, every month they have been deducted a particular amount for ESI but we have not been given ESI card. So what a worker should do to get this ESI card? Ans: ESI card is a family card which looks almost like ration card. AT the backside of the card, the photos and the details of the family members will be given. Once the member is registered by your company, the ESI will give you the card. In many companies they are keeping the ESI card with them, because they think that the worker may loose the card. This is wrong. There is a lot of difficulty in getting this card. so they are doing this. But this is not necessary. If a worker is loosing a card, they can get it by filling an application form. So for sure the worker should be given the ESI card. If they are not giving, you can complain to ESI office. 3) If a worker who has ESI card is getting heart attack while going or coming from the company. And someone is calling 108 and they are taken to nearby hospital. During such time, that medical expenses will it be covered in ESI? Ans: In many places, ESI facility is not only available in ESI hospital but also available in emergency and specialty hospitals. If a worker is sick he will be admitted in some hospital. If you see, in many hospitals, it will be written that ESI coverage is available. So in all cities, there will be few hospitals like that. In such hospitals, ESI coverage is applicable. They can write to ESI office and get the money. 4) Is this ESI facility available for all the Govt and Private hospitals? Ans: For Govt hospitals, ESI facility is available. And as far as private hospitals are concerned, When a mill worker is admitted into a hospital, you can tell them openly that he is a worker and he has ESI coverage. The hospitals will guide you whether it is applicable in their hospital or not. If not they will guide you to the hospital which covers ESI. In such incidents you have to ask and get the information.
