Out of 210 public healthcare providers in Maharashtra who lost their lives during Covid-19, family members of just 58 healthcare providers, that is 28 per cent, have received insurance amount under the central government’s insurance scheme for health workers fighting Covid-19.
The central government had announced the ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package Insurance Scheme for Health Workers Fighting Covid-19’. The scheme provides an insurance cover of ₹50 lakh for public healthcare providers, including community health workers, who may have to be in direct contact of Covid-19 patients and took care of them.
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The State government’s Health Department while answering to activist Jeetendra Ghadge’s RTI application revealed that as of April 28, 2021, the State government had sent 210 applications seeking insurance for family members of deceased health workers. This The insurance was granted for 10 doctors, 3 nurses, 3 Asha workers and 42 others.
“The health care staff is taking serious risk while taking care of us, unfortunately, by the delay in the process of getting this claim approved we are letting them down. Besides only the central government scheme covers the health workers while the State government covers other Covid warriors. It's important to boost the morale of our health care workers by giving them financial security” said Ghadge in a press statement.