Insurance empowers women to pursue smart financial planning! The pursuit of financial security is an intrinsic component of human endeavour, irrespective of region, gender and nationality. Securing one’s loved ones is an essential aspect of ensuring financial resilience. While the contribution of women is most valuable in Indian households, the truth is that decision-making related to a family’s financial well-being has mostly been taken forward by men. In previous decades, the participation of women in financial planning has not been as significant as it should have been. The coverage used to be based on the husband’s annual income. With more women earning and supporting their families, this is now fast changing.
Dr. Tripti Sharan, in her bestselling book ‘Anecdotes and Antidotes’, observes thus: “Indian healthcare functions on the principle that government hospitals are meant for the poor and underprivileged. For everyone else who wants a better cure, there’s a private hospital.”
And it is exactly why women in India today require comprehensive coverage.
Contextual Insurance: Digital Touchpoints Enable Faster Decision-Making
Historically, Indian homemakers have steered clear of financial planning and relied mostly on their spouses to define the same. However, the Indian insurance ecosystem is fast evolving and digital processes have ushered in an era of instant decision-making. More importantly, Indian women are increasingly able to make quick decisions as they are urged to do so at digital touchpoints or gateways such as while booking airline tickets online or shopping for a device online, etc.
Affordable Insurance Premiums for Women
A notable factor is that insurance has become more affordable for women than before. Significant strides in healthcare and general awareness have enabled women to have much lower morbidity and mortality rates than men, which thereby ensures their premiums are highly affordable too. A lower mortality rate implies long-term benefits. Adding to this, new-age InsurTech solutions are continuously evolving to tailor bite-sized and embedded solutions that are perfectly aligned with their unique requirements for homemakers and working women.
A closer look at statistics pinpoints clearly that women in India have mostly outlived their male counterparts. There are numerous studies to highlight the same.
Take an example of a term cover for many middle-class Indian households where the woman may be a salaried professional in her 30s and a non-smoker, the monthly cost for the same term cover would be around 30 per cent lesser as compared to a male counterpart who is a salaried man of the same age and is a smoker. This is only a basic example to drive home the fact that women have access to highly affordable premiums. However, it cannot be taken as a blanket example as several factors come into play such as medical history, etc.
Women’s Healthcare Needs Pave the Way for Fem Techs
Women’s healthcare needs have not gained the visibility it should in India’s healthcare sector. With fast-evolving social dynamics reshaping healthcare requirements, the emergence of women-centric health-tech startups that specifically focus on women’s health is a positive indicator.
A report in The Financial Express Online pegs the fem-tech segment to emerge as a $60 billion industry in the next four years vis-a-vis $18 billion in the year 2019. The report goes on to indicate that by integrating AI with digital mental health services, there will be an increased focus on services pertaining to PCOS, menstruation, fertility and breast cancer detection will rank high.
Indeed, the country’s current economic scenario is ripe to enable more personalised and affordable insurance plans for women, which further translates into higher insurance adoption and penetration among them.
Simply put, insurance today opens up financial independence for Indian women.
Insurance Empowers Women Towards Smart Financial Planning
Insurance secures the financial stability of most Indian households, particularly women. Safeguarding their freedom to make financial choices, and engaging in planning for their family’s future is a critical aspect that serves the nation at large.
