Women bought 36 per cent of life insurance policies sold in 2018-19: IRDAI

More women are buying life insurance than ever before thanks to their growing financial independence as well as financial inclusion and awareness about social security.

Of the 2.86 crore life insurance policies sold in 2018-19, 36 per cent or 1.03 crore policies were bought by women. In contrast, women bought 32 per cent of the new policies sold in 2017-18, data in the IRDAI Annual Report 2018-19 reveals.

Similarly, women subscribers accounted for 37 per cent of the first year premium of Rs 97,690 crore collected in 2018-19, as against 32 per cent in 2017-18.

“Women constitute roughly 48 per cent of the country’s total population. Their contribution to economic activity is significant and is increasing everywhere,” the report noted in a study on women’s share in the life insurance business.

The share of policies bought by women to the total policies sold, was higher than the all-India average in 17 States and Union Territories, including, West Bengal where 59 per cent of all life covers were bought by women, followed by Meghalaya (49 per cent), Manipur and Assam (46 per cent) and Arunachal Pradesh (44 per cent).

Women’s share of the number of policies bought was lesser than the national average in Sikkim (11 per cent), Dadar and Nagar Haveli (19 per cent), Punjab (22 per cent) Gujarat (23 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (27 per cent).

The study also reveals that more than one-third of the life policies bought by women last year were from three States -West Bengal (16.51 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (10.53 per cent) and Maharashtra (10.16 per cent).

Similarly, of the Rs 36,525 crore of first year premium contributed by women in 2018-19, over one-third came from three States – Maharashtra (15.74 per cent), West Bengal (10.05 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (9.55 per cent).

About 39 per cent women bought their life covers from LIC, while 27 per cent purchased them it from private insurers.

Participation of women in life insurance

The IRDAI study also covered women working in the insurance industry. It found that 6.03 lakh women worked as agents in the life insurance industry, aggregating about 27.5 per cent of the total individual agency force as on March 31, 2019.

Of this , 52 per cent of the women agents worked with private life insurers, and 48 per cent with LIC.

In the private sector, Max Life Insurance had the highest percentage of women agents at 45 per cent, followed by IDBI Federal Life Insurance at 41.2 per cent.