What an amazinq quarter we had. Here are the highlights:
Assisted another 202 injured workers at the ESI Hospital (compared to 163 previous quarter). Of these, 85 workers asked us for help regarding their overdue ESI compensations - a conversion rate of 42% (similar to 44% last quarter and 33% previous quarter). Our credibility in the worker community is finally gaining some traction through positive word of mouth, though there is lot more to be done. We are increasingly and consciously communicating that our services are free - something that the workers find difficult to believe and which makes them shy away from our services.
Obtained 28 new compensations (previous two quarters 39 and 24 respectively) amounting to Rs 70 lacs (last two quarters 25 lacs and 6 lacs respectively). This large increase in value is due to increasing success in obtaining high value pensions for the disabled workers. Volume however dropped due to absence of the ESIC Medical Referee for three months and consequent delays in smaller value compensations. We have been escalating this aggressively in ESIC for the past two months and they have finally promised to send a replacement in Oct17 so we hopefully will see an increase in volumes and value in 4Q17.
In the fourth quarter, we expect to assist another 250+ workers, receive more than 50 compensations amounting to Rs 75 lacs+ as ESIC is now responding better to our efforts, from their top management downwards.
We expect to finish 2017 having achieved our plan to help c.1000 workers with health-care, manage 350 compensation cases, and exceed our compensation target by collecting more Rs1.5cr; providing more than the planned 3x tangible direct return on the investment in the Safe-in-India team.
Case Study (Bhola Ojha) and Testimonials: In the last blog, we showcased Chandan Kumar's story. This time, we have the story of Bhola Ojha, a 26 years old migrant worker from Bihar, who lost his left thumb while working on a power press in July 2016. After more than ten visits to ESIC, he had not received his pension when he came to Safe-in-India three months back. After intensive escalations, we are pleased to have obtained his pension of Rs 2200 per month, which will start in Oct17. Such a regular life-long stable inflation-indexed income is a life-changing event for such people. See his attached video and other testimonials.
Monthly Impact Reporting:
We launched our Impact Reports last quarter. Attached is the latest improved version.
Progress in systemic changes in ESIC:
Further to our Mar17 letter to ESIC with detailed tactical and strategic recommendations to improve the ESIC Act and Regulations 1952 , we continue to send monthly MI to them with status of pending cases, actions needed and operational recommendations.
As planned, we escalated matters further by meeting the new Director General of ESIC and a number of ESIC Board members last quarter. They were all receptive to our ideas. On their request, we have now sent a number process re-engineering suggestions to them, which we hope to push to implement at national level. Eg. in the pension process, we see at least 12 steps (necessitating at least 10 ESIC Regional or Branch Offices and Dispensary visits by the workers and that too if process is followed diligently by the ESIC staff). We believe these can be reduced to 5 steps, saving time and money for both the worker and ESIC. See attached Appendix 1 and 2 as an example.
At Gurgaon ESIC’s monthly Suvidha Samagam (an open house for injured workers), more than 75% are now regularly supported by us, for the past six months, and we are being requested to not bring more workers to the meeting. We will of course continue doing what is right for the workers. In Aug17, we also conducted a round table meeting with labour-issue experts in Delhi and they helped us refine our actions. One of the key successes was that ILO agreed to work with us to influence the new Social Security (which will include ESIC) Labour Code. We are hoping that this will help us push some of our Mar17 ESIC Regulation recommendations.
Obviously, every systemic change we are able to bring, as a result of our experiences in Gurgaon-Manesar, is going to help workers all over India Auto manufacturers Supply Chain Issues We continue to find more and more data from our first 750+ registered workers, that demonstrates the issues with the supply chain of the automobile manufacturers in Gurgaon-Manesar. Vast majority of the injuries are happening in the supply chain of Maruti (285 workers), Hero (221) and Honda (277). Next year, with the data of 1000+ workers, we will start working on influencing the OEMs and the factories to improve safety in the auto-supply chain. We are looking for an energetic and strong senior executive for an important Strategic Implementation role for Supply Chain. If you know someone who fits the bill, pls write in confidence to the CEO SII on ssachdeva727@gmail.com
Safe-in-India Infrastructure Development Finally, after six months of hard struggle at government offices, we have been successful in registering ourselves as a Sec8 company with the name we wanted and were not getting it: Safe in India Foundation. We are delighted as we have spent two years building this brand and it is liked by all:-) This means that we will now start our own independence governance and audited financials from nest year once we have also received the Sec80G approvals, which are in process. In the meantime, our esteemed partner, Ajeevika Bureau (“AB”), continues to support us fabulously. The last set of financials for FYE Mar17, as a project under AB, are here. Please note that the three founders do NOT take any compensation for their time or reimbursement for travel and other out-of-pocket expenses. So, thank you all for your continued support. Please do leave your comments below and any suggestions below and spread our message.