PM Narendra Modi launches LIC's 'Bima Sakhi Yojana' to empower women

LIC's Bima Sakhi Yojana to enrol 100,000 women in 12 months

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched Bima Sakhi Yojana, an initiative of the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) that aims to enrol 100,000 Bima Sakhi in 12 months to financially empower women.

 

The scheme is designed to benefit women in the age group of 18-70 years, who are Class-10 pass.

 

“Expansion of the insurance sector will be spearheaded by women via the scheme. The data suggests LIC agents earn up to Rs 15,000/month on an average," Modi said while inaugurating the scheme in Panipat.

 

Modi said that the scheme will play an important role in providing social security to every household.

 

LIC said it is targeting to enrol 100,000 Bima Sakhi in the next 12 months and 200,000  over a period of three years as part of its women empowerment drive.   

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was also present at the event, said 25,000 women will be appointed as Bima Sakhi who have passed Class 10th.

 

“The women will get Rs 7000 stipend in the 1st year, Rs 6000 in 2nd year, Rs 5000 in 3rd year. Women in age groups 18-70 years can be appointed as Bima Sakhi. IRDAI may give training to these women to become permanent development agents after clearance of an exam," Sitharaman said.

 

At the sideline of the event, Siddhartha Mohanty, LIC chairperson, said LIC is likely to spend Rs 840 crore in the first year of Bima Sakhi Yojana.

 

“This spending will be part of the life insurer’s business expenditure and the company is hopeful that the premium income from the scheme will be 4-5 times of the expense,” he added.

 

While the target is to enrol 200,000 women under the scheme over the next three years, Mohanty said that the company is confident of enrolling 100,000 women in the first year.

 

He also said that the company expects these women to sell 24 policies per year and they will be eligible for commission over and above the stipend.

 

After completion of three years of contractual work, Mohanty said that LIC will help train these women and after a basic examination, they will be selected to join the insurer as agents.

 

Mohanty further said that people enrolled under this scheme can sell all policies under LIC, however, they are expected to sell low-value policies.

 

“The aim is to penetrate the untapped areas and have at least one enrolled candidate in every panchayat area,” he added.

 

In the recent past, there have been few regulatory changes in the offing that will likely impact the insurance ecosystem, including allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment in the sector.

 

Mohanty said that the company was confident of maintaining its market share. The insurer market share in April-September increased to 61.07 per cent from 58.50 per cent in the same period of the previous year.