Only 24% households have life cover

NEW DELHI: Awareness about insurance is quite high in India, yet less than three out of 10 households in the country have opted for some kind of life insurance cover, a survey said.

“The awareness about insurance is quite high in India. Around 78% of households are aware of insurance products. However, ownership of insurance products is low — only 24% households in the country own a life insurance cover,” the survey by Max New York Life-NCAER on ‘How India earns, spends and saves’ said.

About 86% of the those who were aware of insurance considered life insurance as the most important product followed by health (6%), automobile (5%) and crop (3%).

The survey, based on figures for 2004-05, pointed out that bulk of the urban households (90%) are aware of the life insurance policies and their benefits.

However, it added, despite high level of awareness, only 38%of the urban households have purchased life insurance products.

A similar set of figures  for rural areas indicate that although close to three-fourths of the households (73%) were aware of insurance, only about two out of  10 households (19%) have actually purchased insurance policies.