Mumbai: Growing awareness of insurance products and increasing number of women in workforce is expected to result in two to four times growth in annual women’s insurance market in India by 2030.
According to a study done by AXA in association with International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Indian women’s insurance market is predicted to be between $22 billion – $35 billion by 2030, which is two to four times the estimated premium of $10 billion spent by women in 2013. “With growing incomes, women in India are gradually becoming important decision makers and contributors to socio-economic developments,” said Nagina Singh, chief human resource officer, Bharti AXA General Insurance Company.
In 2013, women in India spent $0.05 billion on health insurance premiums, which is expected to reach $0.1 billion — $0.16 billion by 2030. Similarly, the life insurance premium is expected to grow to $17.7 billion — $27.6 billion by 2030 from $8.6 billion in 2013 while the non-life insurance premium from women would touch $4.4 billion — $6.9 billion.
The study found that woman are still not sufficiently served by the insurance industry. Women only account for 20-30 per cent of an insurer’s portfolio. While several insurance products that cater to women are currently being offered, few have been successful in the market. According to the study, women feel that male agents do not sufficiently address their needs and may prefer purchasing insurance from women agents.
However, women account for just 25 per cent of the total individual agents in India. “Our experience shows that the average premium per policy sold by female agents can be upto 50 per cent higher than those sold by male agents. There is a strong need for increasing the number of women in the salesforce, which is beginning to be recognised by the industry,” added Ms Singh.
Another important factor highlighted by the study, which could contribute to the growth in insurance premiums from women is the increasing number of women entrepreneurs in India.
“Women entrepreneurship is on the rise. There are nearly three million micro, small and medium enterprises in India owned partially or entirely by women employing over eight million people. However, women entrepreneurs frequently lack insurance cover due to insufficient awareness and poor targeting,” the survey said.
Deccan Chronicle
