More than 4.11 crore new subscribers joined the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) scheme during the last three and a half years, while about 4.87 crore got enrolled in the Employees State Insurance (ESI) scheme, according to the National Statistical Office (NSO).
The NSO said in a release of data of formal employment sectors from 2017 to 2021 that more than 24 lakh people opted for the New Pension Scheme (NPS) of the government in the same period.
In February 2021, around 11.58 lakh new members joined the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). In January this year, about 11.78 lakh joined the scheme from Government and organised sectors of employment. Soon after the first lockdown, in June last year, the ESIC saw about 8.87 lakh new enrollments. It was 4.89 lakh in May and 2.63 lakh in April in the same year during the lockdown period.
But in July, the enrolments came down to 7.63 lakh and later increased to 9.5 lakh in August. 11.58 lakh workers enrolled in September and 12.11 lakh in October 2020.
In the EPFO, 12.37 lakh workers registered in February and 11.95 lakh in January of this year. Between September 2017 to February 2021, the EPFO saw around 4.11 crore new subscribers. In the NPS, 58,250 joined in February 2021. The scheme has 64,40,628 subscribers as of now.