Resource
India: Health Insurance Scheme for handloom weavers
Summary (English)
The Indian Textiles Industry has an overwhelming presence in the economic life of India: it accounts for 14% of industrial production, 4% of GDP and 16.6% of the country¿s export earnings. Within this industry, the handloom sector is one of the largest employers in India, providing employment to about 6.5 million people. Under the Ministry of Textiles, the Office of the Development Commissioner administers various schemes for the promotion and development of this highly dispersed sector and also provides assistance to handloom weavers and their families. It succeeded in covering the health of over 1 million people in its first year of operation and has now become the second largest health insurance scheme in India covering 1.7 million families, which represents over 6 million people. The insurance plan has still to address geographical or hospital networking challenges but the development of efficient linkages has created important synergies and has led the scheme to serve as a new model for future interventions. Thus in March 2007, an exact replica was launched in pilot mode for handicraft artisans.
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Note
Technical Paper published at the ILO Asia-Pacific Regional High-Level Meeting on Socially-Inclusive Strategies to Extend Social Security Coverage, held in New Delhi, India, 19-20 May 2008.