Recently, the Central Government has taken two historic decisions for the welfare of workers in particular and economic development of the country in general by opening both EPFO and ESI schemes to privately managed pension scheme and health insurance schemes. With less cost, workers will now have option to choose from market their pension and healthcare requirements.
Now time has come to open RTI Act to private institutions providing pension and periodical/lumpsum insurance benefits. With limited facilities of Government/ public sector involving healthcare and pensionary benefits, it is a fact that almost 70 to 80 per cent of such coverage is managed and controlled by privately managed insurance companies and private medical institutions. In this background, it is a paradox that such private institutions are out of the ambit of “RTI Act.” Time has come to revisit and reorient our focus on why private insurance companies and private healthcare institutions should not come under “RTI Act”.
It is a fact that privately managed institutions have benefited from using the resources and patronage of Government one way or the other. land, capital or public authorities/ utilities like police, road and transport etc help private bodies to establish their business and occupy large share in the market. With increasing complaints of huge cost of medical care, non-treating/ non-coverage particularly for economically vulnerable section of the society, why not public scrutiny be opened to their venture as far as their services or products are concernedIJ
It is also a fact that all institutions in private sector duly supported NGOs are shouting for increased transparency in Government/public sector offices or institutions but when asked to share information involving services provided by them, they take the plea at the first opportunity to deny such information under the pretext that RTI Act is not applicable to them. Why such discrepancy between private and public sectorIJ
RTI Act has definitely played a positive role in bringing empowerment in our country and it is high time private healthcare providers both in social security and insurance sectors came under the purview of the law. This will not only will benefit production but productivity in the long run, thereby making the “Make in India” a great success.
(The writer is ex-Insurance Commissioner, ESIC, Mail Id- bk_sahu04@yahoo.com)