Four fold growth likely in women's insurance by 2030: Bharti AXA

By 2030,the annual women's insurance market in India is estimated to be between Rs1.4 and 2.3 lakh crore, approximately two to four times the estimated premium of Rs65.5 thousand crore spent by women in 2013, according to a study by insuranceand global asset management player AXA in partnership with Accenture and IFC.The India chapter of the report titled 'SheforShield: Insure Women to BetterProtect All', presented by Bharti AXA, is a first-of-its-kind study of thewomen's insurance market in the emerging economies of Brazil, China, Colombia,India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Thailand, and Turkey.

Theexpected four fold growth is attributed to the improvement in socio economicclimate, better earnings, increase in awareness, growth in entrepreneurship andincrease in life expectancy as the key growth drivers for improvedparticipation of women in insurance.

One of theimportant findings of the study is that the insurance industry has largelyoverlooked women as a key customer segment - despite significant growthpotential in the market. The observation is based on the analysis of thebusiness opportunity the women's market represents for insurers, identifyinggrowth drivers and highlighting women's evolving and growing protection needs.

Meanwhile,some of the concerns that the study threw up regarding the Indian insurancelandscape is that women constitute only 20-30% of insurer's portfolio. It hasbeen observed that women tend to rely on savings, rather than insurance in caseof a health emergency as commercial insurance products continue to remain anexpensive proposition despite increase in income.

Speaking onthe occasion, Dipankar Saika, Senior Vice President Strategic Initiatives,Innovation and Marketing, Bharti AXA GI said, "The women segment in India isextremely important for Bharti AXA General Insurance. While most of ourofferings have aspects that benefit women in particular like critical illnesscover, roadside assistance etc., this report shall help immensely in taking ourendeavor to the next level. We shall look at women specific products andincreasing the number of women both in our agent sales force and companyworkforce. In fact I firmly believe that the deep insights the report offers interms of woman insurance issues and solutions shall guide not just us but theentire Indian General insurance industry in direction of serving womencustomers better."