NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

A first-of-its-kind report on mutual and cooperative microinsurance in India entitled The missing chapter of microinsurance in India: a diagnostic of mutuals has today been published by the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) and Insurance Institute of India (III). This country diagnostic study was conducted as part of the ICMIF’s 5-5-5 Mutual Microinsurance Strategy. The 5-5-5 Strategy aims to provide mutual microinsurance solutions to 5 million low-income households, in five emerging markets (India, Philippines, Kenya, Colombia and Sri Lanka) over the next five years. It is hoped that this will equate to 25 million previously uninsured people having insurance cover as a result.

Despite insurance-based social security schemes, a large section of the Indian population remains excluded from insurance cover with insurance penetration at just 3.44% and the penetration in non-life static at 0.5-0.8 % over the last 10 years (Source: IRDAI annual report 2015-16). With about 600,000 cooperatives in the country with a collective membership of over 250 million people, the potential for developing mutual and cooperative insurance for the poor in India is enormous.