The Hindu Business Line : Surat diamond workers craft indigenous insurance scheme

KEEP it simple. That was the brief with which the Surat Diamond Association set out to locate a group insurance cover for diamond workers in the city. When none of the insurance companies could offer a suitable insurance product, the association decided to do it on its own.

Nearly 18,000 diamond workers are now covered under the benevolent scheme being run by the Surat Diamond Association that pays Rs 1 lakh to the family of a member in the event of death and other defined amounts in case of serious disablement.

The `Ratnakalakar Bima Yojana' scheme is in its second year of operation and the association targets to rope in at least one lakh members by the end of the current year. As many as 17 claims have already been settled till last month, where the payment was made within 15 days of the death of the member.

"When we approached insurance companies, they quoted very high premium rates. We then decided to do it ourselves. A survey of nearly one lakh diamond workers was carried out to assess the risk. Their average age is 28, so we could come up with this scheme with an annual premium of just Rs 225," says the Surat Diamond Association President, Mr Nanubhai B. Vanani.

The annual premium, too, is often paid in part or fully by employers as a welfare measure. The profits under the scheme would be ploughed back for other welfare measures of the association. Plans are afoot to set up primary health centres in each of the 10 diamond polishing clusters of Surat.

"We organised a mega blood donation camp to celebrate the first year of the scheme in which 22,022 units of blood was collected on a single day. We are now trying to get a Guinness Book of World Records recognition for the event because we understand that the previous record is 12,000 units," Mr Vanani says.

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