Under the 12th five year plan period the Central Government has set a target to bring 70 million people under the Rashtriya Swastya Beema Yojana or RSBY. The Director General of Union Labour Welfare ministry, Mr. Anil Swarup informed this during the State Level Review Workshop on RSBY in Bangalore on Monday.

RSBY is a health insurance scheme of Central government, with around 10,000 hospitals across the country offering health services to the downtrodden like the construction workers, beedi factory as also domestic workers and street vendors. He further informed that Central Government is mulling over the idea of using Swastya Beema Yojana smart cards for issuing ration cards and MGNREGS job cards.

Speaking on the occasion, the State labour minister Bachegowda informed that RSBY smart cards have been issued to more than 17 lakh people in the state, but only 13,261 have availed health services, incurring an expenditure of five crore eight lakh rupees. He felt a need to sensitise the marginalised sections of the society about the benefits of this Central scheme, so that more people can reap its benefit.