Union Labour Minister Bhupendra Yadav lauds EPFO, ESIC for clearing pending claims of women

New Delhi [India], March 9 : Union Labour Minister Bhupendra Yadav on Wednesday lauded EPFO and ESIC for clearing all claims of women, launching Women Empowerment Desks, and excellence awards on the International Women's Day, said a press release by the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
On the International Women's Day, coinciding with the Iconic week of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, two key constituents of the Ministry of Labour and Employment Labour EPFO and ESIC along with DGMS ran a series of women-friendly measures including steps to process all claims of women, and a first of its kind "Women's Empowerment Desks" to cater to women stakeholders for one-stop service delivery, added the press release.
This initiative ending March settled 1,44,069 women claims for a total amount of about Rs 638 crores in a week-long exercise. Last year in 2021, EPFO had conducted a pilot of settling all claims of its female subscribers in one of its Delhi offices, added the press release.
This now has been replicated across all offices in India by EPFO to symbolically celebrate Women's Day 2022 as an empowerment display of priority services, added the press release.
A function was jointly organized by EPFO, ESIC & DGMS on the theme "value and empower the women workforce" yesterday here, attended by Bhupendra Yadav, Minister for Labour & Employment, Rameswar Teli, Minister of State for Labour & Employment, Sunil Barthwal, Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Neelam Shami Rao, Central Provident Fund Commissioner, M.S Bhatia, DG ESIC and others, stated the press release.
Speaking on the occasion, Yadav lauded the unique initiatives taken by EPFO and ESIC two of the key constituents of the Labour Ministry who are citizen-centric faces of the Government.
He said, "While EPFO symbolizes Trust, ESIC compliments through Services".
Elaborating further, he appreciated the unique services planned to celebrate women's day namely clearing of all women claims in EPFO and ESIC.
He added that the Government of India is committed to not only ensuring equality at the workplace and not only to choose a work but also the freedom to choose the right work, and equal freedom to secure health.
The Minister virtually launched a "Women's Empowerment Desks" in Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai as the first Women Empowerment Desk to cater to all women stakeholder interactions with EPFO today.
The Minister also distributed recognition awards to three Women Corona Warriors from ESIC namely Jayashree Shiv Kumar Bhale, Andhra Pradesh, Uma Gopinath, Medical Officer KK Nagar Mrs Meenakshi Paramedical Staff all of ESIC hospitals.
He also felicitated four first time employed women mine-workers in India namely Aruna Narayan Sankatala and Bipasha Biswas of Opencast mines and Sandhya Rasakatla along with Yogeshwari Rane from underground mines.