Only 15% of India’s workforce covered under corporate health, wellness programs: Report

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As the Covid-19 pandemic wreaks havoc and puts the spotlight on healthcare, only 15% of the country’s total workforce is covered under corporate health and wellness programmes, said management consultancy RedSeer on Monday.

“After seeing the glaring shortcomings of the healthcare infrastructure, global corporate majors and investors are keenly looking at future opportunities… While many fragments in this ecosystem are lagging behind, few are showing a drastic change in the hour of crisis. One being the corporates’ health & wellness programmes segment.,” it said.

“Further, with the strike of the pandemic, these programmes are now increasingly gaining demand as corporates are partnering with these focused platforms and beefing up their employee-focused programs and are assisting their employees to avail the benefits in real-time now,” it added.

“A mere 15% of the total workforce is covered under such programs. 405 million employees across sectors are still not part of such corporate programmes. This shows there is a long way ahead of such programmes. As there is a direct correlation between health and performance, organisations must look into ways to increase the reach of such programmes and how to move the needle on employee well-being,” it said in a statement.

India’s overall workforce in organised and unorganised sectors has 477 million individuals, 85% of which are unorganised blue collared employees, according to Redseer estimates.

The corporate health and wellness market in India includes various sectors like manufacturing, BFSI, logistics, agriculture, trading among other industries. Agriculture has the maximum share among others while BFSI has the lowest. Currently, the corporate health and wellness market in India is worth Rs 55,000 crore.

With increased focus on healthcare especially after the second wave of Covid-19, the insurance segment is expected to grow with a growth rate of 20% by 2025 while demand for insurance with OPD services is also increasing.

According to RedSeer, the employee health and wellness segment is dominated by a number of players including Practo, CureFit, Ekincare, Apollo, MediBuddy among others, which are increasingly providing health insurance, check-ups, gym, mental wellness, health coaching and online consultations.