India’s ambitious Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) is set to make its mark beyond the borders. The first-of-its-kind cashless
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insurance scheme with biometric smart cards, targetted at BPL families, is likely to be adopted by Pakistan and Bangladesh while Nepal has evinced keen interest.

This, after the World Bank took note of the success early and spread the good word. The RSBY team from Union labour ministry has been invited to a workshop in Bangkok next week where it will share details of the scheme and related issues with countries looking to implement health insurance for the poor. Deals with Bangladesh and Pakistan may be finalized soon.

The workshop, ‘Implementing Targeted Health Insurance Scheme’, will be held in Bangkok on January 25-26. Crucially, Aradhana Patnaik, labour commissioner, Jharkhand, has been chosen to be the face of the scheme. She will share details about the ground level implementation of RSBY. The naxal-affected state, notorious for maladministration, is said to be doing well in RSBY. Anil Swarup, incharge in labour ministry, will lead the delegation.

RSBY touched a milestone on Tuesday when labour minister Mallikarjuna Kharge announced that one crore smart cards had been issued under the scheme. It is not without reason that RSBY is finding takers. The scheme has defied the odds of political instability and operational problems to be a success in Jharkhand. As many as 388,360 smart cards are being used across 12,66,429 BPL families.

The success is not limited to just Jharkhand. It has met with equal success in UP, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana. In UP, otherwise not known for governance, 24,54,703 cards have been distributed among 83,21,166 BPL families. Himachal Pradesh is doing well, clocking a success rate of 82.47% in distributing health insurance cards among BPL families.

The scheme offers cashless insurance worth Rs 30,000 to the target group. With 75% funding from Centre, the scheme allows beneficiaries — five members of a family — to avail hospital facilities. For this, the members of BPL families are issued smart cards.

The format, however, is emerging as the roadmap for future targetted subsidy schemes. The cards, with unique biometric identification, ensure that pilferage is plugged, the bane of welfare policies in the country.

Biometric identification helps unorganised sector and contract labourers by making insurance location-neutral.

Those who travel across states for work can avail of hospital facilities at empanelled hospitals anywhere.