At a time the Narendra Modi government is facing an Opposition onslaught over rising unemployment, government data placed in Parliament on Tuesday showed a 20 per cent dip in the number of employees in public sector insurance companies (PSICs) in the past five years.
If there were 1,73,797 employees in seven insurance companies as on 31 March, 2018, the Ministry of Finance statistics said, it fell to 1,49,266 as on 31 March, 2022.
During this period, only 13,591 appointments were made though the decrease in number of employees was 34,531.
In a written reply to questions raised by CPI(M) MP AA Rahim in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Dr Bhagwat Karad said the PSICs are Board governed commercial entities and appointment of officers and staff is done by the companies on the basis of requirement.
The number of employees in the seven insurance companies -- General Insurance Corporation, New India Assurance Company, National Insurance Company, United India Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company, Agriculture Insurance Company of India and Life Insurance Corporation -- in March 2019 was 1,66,913, which rose marginally to 1,69,053 in March 2020. It further fell to 1,58,898 in March 2021.
The LIC, the largest insurance company in the country, saw the number of employees coming down from 1,11,979 in March 2018 to 1,04,036 five years later.
The New India Assurance Company saw its employees dwindling from 17,880 to 13,929 while Oriental Insurance's figures fell from 13,667 to 9,440 and United India's from 15,926 to 11,523. National Insurance Company's employee count fell from 13,440 to 9,569 and Agriculture Insurance Company of India from 324 to 275. General Insurance Corporation had 581 employees in March 2018 and it fell to 494 in March this year.
Rahim said the data clearly showed the government's intention to restrict the public sector insurance companies by continuously reducing their manpower.
"This is impacting both the performance of these companies and the continuing employees on whom a greater burden of work falls. By sabotaging the public sector insurance companies, the government is building the foundation for privatising them. This will allow corporates to buy up our valuable public sector entities," he said.
When it comes to appointments, Oriental Insurance has not made a single appointment in the past five years while National Insurance Corporation has not taken any new employee for the past four years. While it made 657 appointments in 2017-18, United India Insurance has made just 20 appointments since then.
The LIC has made the highest number of appointments -- 11,066 -- in five years though it did not appoint a single person in 2020-21.