Government launches facility to claim maternity benefits via Employees' State Insurance Corporation's portal

Union labour minister Bhupender Yadav has launched a new facility which will allow women members of the Employees' State Insurance Corporation scheme to claim maternity benefits online.

"Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of Labour & Employment and Environment, Forest & Climate Change, launched the Employees' State Insurance Corporation's (ESIC) online maternity benefit claim facility during the commemoration of 102nd birth anniversary of Dattopant Thengadi at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, yesterday," a labour ministry statement said.

Speaking on this occasion, Yadav lauded the efforts of ESIC for the initiative of using technology for easing the lives of insured women.

He said that this portal will make the benefits easily accessible to the beneficiaries.

Minister of State for Labour Rameswar Teli said that this step will help realise the aim of women empowerment more effectively.

The newly-introduced facility will ease the process of claiming maternity benefits for insured women as the process has now been made online, where the beneficiaries, at their convenience, can now claim the maternity benefits from anywhere.

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Earlier, the beneficiaries, for claiming the maternity benefits had to visit the respective branch offices physically.

Maternity benefits are given to the insured women in the form of cash benefit in case of certain contingencies such as in the advanced stage of pregnancy, after delivery/ in the unfortunate event of confinement or miscarriage and those who meet the eligibility conditions.

Payment at the rate of 100 per cent of wages is paid for 26 weeks as maternity benefit to the insured woman by ESIC to compensate for the loss of income during the period.

A total of 18.69 lakh women beneficiaries have been provided maternity benefit of Rs 37.37 crore during 2021-22.