Latest updates at the bottom of this note

Whitefield Rising had wanted to give a Christmas and New Year gift in 2013 to our staff. These are the people who work for us to make our lives easier. We came across Government of India’s medical insurance scheme Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojna, RSBY (http://www.rsby.gov.in/ )floated by the Department of Labour. This was on Dec 10^th 2013. On further enquiry, we realised that the scheme was almost closing taking applications. We collected as many applications as we could in a day’s time, reaching out to communities who in turn asked for the necessary documents. We rushed to the Labour Commissioner’s (LC) office in Bannerghatta to brief him on Whitefield Rising and implore upon him to extend the deadline for us. He gave us less than 36 hours! Then began a frenzy to collect more applications and send all information to the LC’s office in a prescribed excel format that we were initially not aware of. In all a few hundred hours of the team collectively went into this exercise. To cut a long story short, we managed to file approx. 1000 applications on Dec 13^th and were given a receipt of the same from their office. The cards were to be rolled out by end January/ early February 2014. We waited patiently, keeping our fingers crossed and hoping this scheme which would provide a family a benefit of Rs 30000 annually would materialise soon.

Circa Feb 2014

We started making enquiries about the delivery dates. Response : Due to election code of conduct, nothing would transpire till elections are over.

May 18th 2014

Post elections, the cards distribution started in rest of Karnataka and we were told Bangalore would start soon.

June 2014 -Dec 2014

Numerous phone calls to the concerned authorities have shown general apathy. Unfortunately the Labour Commissioner has moved out and due to some political reasons and the distribution of cards has stopped. Very unfortunate circumstances. We are trying for a meeting in the last week of July to the new LC to put forward our case. We don’t know whether the meeting will be granted and what the outcome would be.

This Economic Times article says Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana may be shifted to Health Ministry.

(http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-07-07/news/51133512_1_health-ministry-rsby-rashtriya-swasthya-bima-yojana)

Jan 2015 onwards

We heard that the Government is ready to give the RSBY cards. After 3 months of follow up, we finally connected with RSBY people in Bangalore only to be told that none of our applications are there in the list that has come out. Extremely disappointed but trying to find a way forward.

Apr 22, 2015

The following locations have been provided for enrollment of DOMESTIC WORKERS only.

Applicants are requested to bring BPL card + Rs 30 along with atleast 1 family member(husband/ children). The smart card will be issued on the spot.

Request you to send your staff between 10am-6 pm to any of the above locations.

Benefits of RSBY

• Smart card based cashless Health Insurance cover of Rs.30000 per annum for a family of
• five on family floater basis
• All pre-existing diseases to be covered
• Hospitalization expenses, taking care of most of the illnesses, new born including
• maternity benefits.
• Transportation cost of Rs.100/- per visit with an overall limit of Rs.1000/-per annum.
• Smart card can be used in any of the Empanelled Hospital in India for treatment.
• Beneficiaries can avail treatment for more than 1090 procedures including surgeries as
• in-patient in any empanelled hospital.

List of empanelled hospitals.

Detailed benefits explained here.

About RSBY