ESI Stands for Employees’ State Insurance. The Employees’ State Insurance – ESI is embodied in the embodied in the Employees’ State Insurance Act. The ESI is established to protect the employees as per the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948. It basically deals with the self- financing social security and health insurance scheme for Indian workers. The ESI covers against the against the impact of incidences of sickness, maternity, disablement and death due to employment injury and to provide medical care to insured persons and their families.

The Scheme has been extended to shops, hotels, restaurants, cinemas including preview theaters, road-motor transport undertakings and newspaper establishments employing 10 or more persons (in some states it is 20). The Scheme has been extended to Private Medical and Educational institutions employing 10 or more persons in certain States and Union Territories.