The Ministry of Labour and Employment is planning to raise reimbursement limits for medical treatment under the Labour Welfare Scheme, according to two people aware of the matter.

 

The proposed revamp will also introduce digital health records for beneficiaries.

 

The ministry plans to raise the reimbursement limit for heart diseases to ₹2 lakh from ₹1.3 lakh and increase the limit for kidney treatment to ₹3 lakh from ₹2 lakh, with the coverage expanded to include dialysis.

 

The limit for several other illnesses will rise to ₹40,000 per disease from ₹30,000.

 

These include tuberculosis, hernia, appendectomy, ulcer, gynaecological and prostate diseases, and cataract.

 

The revised provisions would also cover diagnostic tests and investigations for these illnesses, with reimbursement based on actual expenditure and subject to the prescribed ceilings, the people said.

  

An email query sent to the labour ministry did not elicit a response till press time.

 

The Labour Welfare Scheme provides health, education and other welfare support to beedi, cine and specified non-coal mine workers and their families.

 

The scheme is a Central Sector scheme financed through grants from the Union government.

 

It was allocated ₹52 crore in the 2026-27 Budget, up from ₹50.68 crore budgeted for 2025-26. The revised estimate for 2025-26 was subsequently raised to ₹78.09 crore.

 

The ministry plans to create a digital beneficiary database linked to Aadhaar or another unique identification number, drawing on existing worker records, including e-Shram, the government’s national database of unorganised workers.

 

The proposed system will also include QR-code-enabled health cards and a portal for registration, medical claims and digital health records.

 

The scheme is implemented through 18 Labour Welfare Organisation regions, headed by welfare commissioners under the administrative control of the Directorate General of Labour Welfare.

 

The health component currently operates through 10 hospitals and 279 dispensaries across these regions.

 

The scheme covers beedi workers, including those working from home, cine workers and workers in specified non-coal mines — iron ore, manganese ore and chrome ore, limestone and dolomite, and mica mines.

 

Cine workers include people employed directly or through contractors in connection with the production of feature films, including those working in skilled, unskilled, technical, artistic, manual and supervisory roles.

 

Workers would need a total income from all sources of up to ₹21,000 a month or ₹2.52 lakh a year, be aged up to 60 and have completed at least six months of continuous service.

 

They would also need to establish their employment through prescribed identity-card or worker records, with the scheme’s beneficiary database linked to Aadhaar or another unique ID.

 

Treatment of dependants would require one year of continuous service.

 

The proposed changes come against a documented health burden among some of the worker groups covered by the scheme.

 

A 2023 review by The George Institute for Global Health and the World Health Organization (WHO), published in BMJ Global Health, examined 95 studies on beedi workers in India.

 

It found evidence of serious respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological and gynaecological diseases, including tuberculosis, asthma and chronic bronchitis.

 

The review also cited a study that found female beedi workers were nearly twice as likely to develop cervical cancer as non-beedi workers.

 

In non-coal mines, fatal accidents increased to 33 in 2024 from 28 in 2023, while fatalities rose to 40 from 33, according to data from the Directorate General of Mines Safety.

 

Alongside the higher treatment coverage, the proposed guidelines would overhaul how beneficiaries access and manage healthcare.

 

The digital system would provide for online enrolment, outpatient department (OPD) and inpatient department (IPD) registration, e-claims and digital medical records through the Next Gen e-Hospital platform.

 

Health analytics would be used for disease surveillance and policy planning, while health cards would provide for biometric authentication.