The Centre has recently provided insurance cover to all 2.11 crore NREGA workers under the Janashree Bima Yojana (JBY) after the expansion of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to entire country from April this year.

The finance ministry gave the approval to the proposal of rural development ministry to include all the rural poor involved in NREGA under the ambit of JBY in July this year.

The rural development ministry has written to all the state governments to extend the insurance cover to their respective NREGA workers.

Under JBY, the insured person would have to pay annually Rs 200 as individual premium. Half of this premium would be contributed by the member or the state governments and the balance would be borne by the Social Security Fund. The families of the insured persons will get Rs 75,000 in case of death due to accident or permanent disability, while Rs 30,000 would be given to the beneficiary in case of partial disability.

JBY is a scheme introduced by LIC and provides life insurance protection to the rural and urban poor living below poverty line.

As per rules, however, in order to get this cover, the workers are required to put in a minimum 15 days of work in a year under NREGA. A person already covered by insurance policy of some other company or department, would not be eligible for cover under JBY, a ministry official told PTI. Rural development ministry officials said till now only Andhra Pradesh government has fully incorporated JBY to all its NREGA workers, while other states have assured the rural development ministry that they will soon follow suit.

The ministry's plan to provide insurance cover to NREGA workers throughout the country has come after its another significant announcement of making all wage payments to these workers through bank or post office accounts.

All state governments have been issued orders by the ministry that any payment made to NREGA workers through cash after September this year, would not be considered valid.

Subsequently many state governments have opened bank and post office accounts for NREGA workers to facilitate transparency in the payment of their wages.