Page 7 - Life Insurance Today FEBRUARY 2016
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portunity but as a part of their social responsibility as well
and efforts should be made to achieve the standards in the
true spirit and not merely as a target to be fulfilled. All the
other stakeholders have a crucial role to play in ensuring
that the task is absolutely accomplished. The author is in-
corrigibly optimistic that all the stakeholders will invariably
think about the micro-health insurance initiative forward
along with the other needs like life, agricultural, livestock
and property coverage.
Considering the huge importance that is associated with differently but considering the huge population, even a
this task we need to avail the contributions from the ex- smaller percentage would necessarily mean that the num-
perts of various fields that have been working in the do- bers are still very huge. Poverty alleviation programs have
main, noting their experiences and suggesting ways to take always been a priority for the policy makers of the nation.
the initiative forward.
To this day, several initiatives have been taken and subse-
There is a dire need now to understand first the pulse of quently these poverty alleviation programmes have been
the masses and accordingly go about the task of inculcat- duly supplemented by empowerment programme for the
ing in them the habit of purchasing insurance. Efficient and economically downtrodden sections of the society in order
cost effective delivery of micro-health insurance requires to bring them into the main stream.
specialized skills and institutional capacity in the grassroots-
level organizations such as Micro Finance Institutions One should admit that several of these initiatives have
(MFIs), Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and yielded results and one gets to see a better standard of
healthcare providers; and the main task is to look at the living, which is more visible in the countryside after we
challenges faced by the healthcare sector in India, particu- know that a sound mind in a sound body should be the
larly the underprivileged sections; and suggests ways to rise motto of every human being - whether he belongs to be-
up to the challenge. low the poverty limit or not. Micro-finance institutions have
been doing a great job towards strengthening the cause
In spite of the rapid strides of development that India has of poverty alleviation. Apart from active lending, some of
made more recently in several domains, a large percent- the micro-finance organizations also provide other services
age of people are still dependent on the primary sector. that help in productivity enhancement and business devel-
We must find out the ways to take micro-health insurance opment.
through proper publicity policy to the huge and definitely
interested population overcoming the disadvantages of a All this has helped the economically downtrodden sections,
heterogeneous healthcare industry with its price dispari- especially in the rural areas, to work in a given direction
ties, geographical inequities in availability and price and raise themselves economically. The success of the Self
opaqueness. This is definitely the customer lead product Help Groups (SHGs), especially in some pockets of India, has
and insurance companies must be thinking of ways to man- proved that given a proper direction, even the bottom-most
age the downside and exploit the market - their strong layers of the society can respond positively to the needs of
initiative is the dire need of the situation. time. It would not be an exaggeration to mention that
several of these SHGs have brought in a silent revolution in
Despite the entire economic boom that the country has the field of rural economics.
been witnessing and the ever-increasing growth rate, there
is no doubt that the incident of health related problems in
poor population is still very high. Percentages may indicate
Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your
heart will consume you too.
Life Insurance Today February 2016 7
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