PIL seeks health insurance for 20 lakh unorganised workers
The directions came on Friday from the division bench comprising
chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and justice Arun Palli on a public interest
litigation filed by Patiala-based society, Centre for Social Change and Equity.
The Centre had formulated the health insurance scheme in October
2007 providing for smart card-based cashless health insurance cover of Rs
30,000 per family (unit of five) per annum on a family floater basis to below
poverty line families in the unorganised sector.
Appearing for the petitioner society, advocate Veena Kumari
argued that the workers in the unorganised sector constituted about 93% of the
total workforce in the country. But despite various welfare schemes framed by
the Centre for this sector, majority of the workers were still without any
social security coverage, she added. In Punjab
alone, there are more than 20 lakh workers in the unorganised sector, including
building and other construction workers as well.
The court was informed that the Centre had extended the scheme
to various other categories like street vendors, beedi workers, domestic
workers, building and other construction workers, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act workers and in the second phase to rickshawpullers,
rag- pickers, mine workers, sanitation workers, auto-rickshaw drivers and taxi
drivers.
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