"We may be poor, but we are so many. Why don't we start a bank of our own ? Our own women's bank, where we are treated with the respect and service that we deserve."
- Chandaben, old clothes seller,
Founder - member, SEWA Bank
"How many times do we need to prove that poor women are bankable?"
After independence, in 1947, a number of private insurance companies were providing life and general insurance in India*. In 1956, life insurance was nationalized and the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) became the only authorized life insurer. Later in 1970, about 200 private non-life insurance companies were amalgamated and four general insurance companies were formed under General Insurance Corporation of India. These companies started working as a commercial insurance company with a limited social objective. Though quite a few schemes were devised oriented towards rural poor but they didn't do much to help real poor because
They were designed without proper market survey so they were not fulfilling poor people's needs.
Procedures were too complicated for illiterate poor.
Insurance companies did not know how to reach out to poor.
Thus, government insurance companies failed to give satisfactory services to the poor people in the last three decades. Finally in the year 2000 government deregulated the insurance sector and permitted private investors and companies to enter in this field.
In India, more than 90% workers are in the informal economy today. Of the female labour force in India, more than 94 % are informal or unorganized workers. They do not obtain regular salaried employment with welfare benefits like workers in the organized sector. They are the unprotected labour force of the country. Their work is not counted and they remain invisible, though they contribute significantly to the nation's economy.
Life is full of struggles for poor women. They work for long hours in poor conditions for the whole life. When they cannot work because of biological crises (sickness, pregnancy, accidents), economic crises (unemployment, debt), natural or man made disasters (flood, fire, riots, drought, earthquake) it results in loss of work, income and assets. Many times they have to sell their assets like land and even borrow money at very high rates. This leads them deeper into the vicious cycle of poverty and indebtedness.
Thus, given poor women's strong need for a buffer in times of crises, in 1992 SEWA started an integrated insurance programme for its members. It was started with the objective of providing a support to poor women in times of calamities. It is a collaborative effort of SEWA, SEWA Bank and the nationalised insurance companies. Currently, SEWA has its own insurance unit called VimoSEWA. Which insures women for life, health, assets, widowhood and accidents in Gujarat. Starting with 7,000 members, it has now reached more than 70,000 women in 11 districts of Gujarat state. The total number of insureds, women and men, is 90,000.
Today our programme is a group insurance package linked with the insurance companies, as mentioned earlier. There are three different packages according to the needs and affordability of the members. Women have an option to insure their husbands' lives and health by giving additional premium.
