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(such as cattle and houses), and covering 32 percent of their membership who had asset
loans. Coverage was more than twice as high for Grameen replicants than for MFIs using the
SHG model. 2 Unfortunately, data is not available on how widespread insurance is under the
SBLP programme. 3
It is estimated that more than 90 percent of the Indian population does not enjoy social
protection 4 of any kind, a higher proportion even than those who are unserved by the banks
in respect of savings and credit. Both government 5 and civil society actors 6 have tried to
make a dent on this huge deficit in recent years. The movement was greatly strengthened by
the social obligation placed on the existing public and new private insurance companies to
intervene in the sector through the IRDA of 1999, which opened the insurance market to the
private sector. Regulations issued under the act in 2002 required private insurance companies
to issue 16 percent of their total life insurance policies to the rural sector within five years,
and build up to at least five percent of their gross premium income from non-life policies
within three years. 7 Competition within the sector suddenly increased, and resulted in a sharp
increase in the number of players (currently about 30) and number and variety of insurance
products aimed at the poor. 8
It is estimated
that more than
90 percent of
the Indian
population does
not enjoy social
protection of
any kind, a
higher
proportion even
than those who
are unserved by
the banks in
respect of
savings and
credit
The extent of microinsurance in India
The subregional office for South Asia of the STEP programme of the ILO has provided a very
useful service to the sector by building up virtually from scratch the beginnings of the
statistical foundations of the microinsurance sector though a series of recent studies on
microinsurance products, the institutions offering them and case studies. An inventory prepared
in 2003-04, ILO 2005(1), identified 83 products listed by insurance companies, evenly divided
between life and non-life, three-fourths of which were accounted for by the private insurance
companies. Of the non-life products the most important were accident related risks - accidental
death, disability, and accident expenses. 9
Another inventory, also prepared in 2003-04, ILO 2005(2), of institutions engaged in
microinsurance, managed to gather information on 51 organizations already offering
microinsurance schemes, and another 9 with plans to commence operations in the near future.
A third of the organizations were engaged primarily in microfinance, and 31 percent were
NGOs supporting a wide range of development activities at the grassroots level (including
microfinance). Of the rest, 23 percent were community based or organizations (CBOs), and
another 12 percent health care providers. Given the strong presence of existing microfinance
providers it is no coincidence that 52 percent of the organizations were located in AP, Tamil
Nadu and Karnataka. 10
Health insurance
While the number of organizations offering health insurance had been only 29 in the 2003-
2004 inventory of institutions, it had jumped to 54 organizations offering 61 schemes in a
2006 update (ILO (2006)) The institutions are listed in Appendix Table 2,
The total number of individuals covered was at least 5.1 million. While 35 of the schemes were
under the partner-agent model, with the agent collecting premia and disbursing claims in the
capacity of an intermediary, and financial ownership, management and risk being borne by
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