MR Microinsurance_2012_03_29.indd - International Labour ...

Microinsurance that works for women
making a decision to purchase insurance, and the high rates of illiteracy
amongst women in many countries (McCord, 2007a). As women must be fully
convinced of the product’s function and benefi ts if they are to enrol voluntarily,
the most successful gender-sensitive communication strategies ensure frequent
contact with women clients by helpful staff (Chatterjee, 2005). Tata-AIG found
it useful to hire and train women sales agents from local communities as a
means of ensuring that the agents were approachable and accessible to local
women. Th ese agents were encouraged to sell fi rst to people they knew in their
community and then to branch out from there (Churchill and Leftly, 2006).
Th ese interactions must be also handled in a way that is sensitive to women who
are living in diffi cult or abusive relationships who may require additional support
to negotiate the purchase of microinsurance with their husbands. Box 16.3
provides a description of SEWA’s approach to women’s microinsurance and discusses
the strategies SEWA uses to maintain frequent and approachable communication
with its clients.
Box 16.3 India’s SEWA Bank: A pioneer in gender-sensitive microinsurance
With a tagline of “Our lives are full of risks, VimoSEWA makes our life secure!,”
India’s SEWA Bank off ers its clients – all self-employed poor women – a choice of
three bundled microinsurance schemes designed to provide unique “cradle to
grave” cover for many of the key lifecycle fi nancial pressures faced by poor women.
Available at various price points to ensure aff ordability, the schemes cover the
death, health and assets of women, with options to also cover husbands and chil-
dren for a lower incremental fee. Th e children’s cover provides protection for all the
children in the family, to avoid parents having to choose which of their children to
insure. Starting with 7 000 clients in 1992, in 2009 VimoSEWA covered nearly
200 000 women, men and children. Th e products are uniquely integrated with
SEWA’s fi xed deposit savings accounts, giving clients the option to pay insurance
premiums with the interest accrued from their savings account.
SEWA uses a variety of communication strategies to promote the products and
educate clients about microinsurance. It has found that regular face-to-face
interactions are highly valued by women clients, who appreciate the feeling of
involvement and the opportunity to ask questions about their policies and discuss
broader family issues relating to to risk. VimoSEWA has used both small and large
client meetings to provide comfortable women-only forums to to discuss issues such
as what can happen when a woman or or a poor family is confronted with a major
risk and and how they can protect their families families from those risks by using microinsur-
ance.
Source: Authors.
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