Amid the novel coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the country for over six months, a majority of Indians are working to build up their immunity levels and fell that stress of any kind is a challenge to this.

A recent survey conducted by SBI Life Insurance has found that 81 per cent of Indians are focussed on building their physical immunity, and 78 per cent strongly feel that stress and anxiety affects mental and physical immunity.

Key reasons for stress

The top three reasons for stress are attributed to financial security against critical illness, a family member getting infected by any lifestyle disease or Covid-19, and loss of job or income.

“The reasons for financial worries cited by consumers underpin the stress caused by financial management of lifestyle diseases. Alarmingly, over 50 per cent Indians are not sufficiently prepared to face any financial emergencies related to lifestyle diseases,” SBI Life Insurance said on Tuesday.

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The life insurer had commissioned the survey on ‘Understanding Consumer Attitude Towards Financial Immunity’ with The Nielsen Company, and reached out to over 2,400 consumers across 13 key cities in the country.

It revealed that for 62 per cent of the respondents, financial immunity is equivalent to being financially prepared to tackle any uncertainty related to life and health.

“Life insurance, followed by health insurance, are the major products associated with safeguarding the family’s future,” noted Ravi Krishnamurthy, President Zone I, SBI Life Insurance.

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As many as 80 per cent of people have purchased or wish to buy life insurance for safeguarding their family’s future, while 77 per cent of the respondents have already bought or want to purchase health insurance.

People have also become more aware of the right asset allocation between insurance and investments due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and are opting for term insurance to cover risk to life.

The survey also revealed that 61 per cent of the people mentioned the need to safeguard themselves from rising medical costs of treatment of critical illnesses as the top reason for buying such a cover.

“Among those who do not own a critical illness cover or plan, 75 per cent of people intend to buy it over the next three months,” it further said.

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