Attitudes of Rural Customers about the Need for Life Insurance Protection – A Study in Udupi District

Abstract

Insurance, in its many forms, touches the life of virtually every person in this country. Any society could not function effectively, efficiently or safely as it does were insurance-free. If there was no insurance, there would be so much uncertainty and exposure to loss that no business would be able to function and exist. Business would have an extremely difficult time obtaining any type of financing because few lenders would risk their capital without having a guarantee of safety for their investments.

Insurance’s value to society is enormous and irreplaceable. Insurance protects hard-earned, accumulated assets while minimizing financial risk. Insurance does this by reimbursing people and business for covered losses, encouraging accident prevention and safety-oriented practices, providing funds for investment, enabling people to borrow money, and reducing anxiety. Even though insurance does do all these things, many people do not fully understand how insurance works or the value and security it brings to them. A strong insurance sector is of vital importance to every modern economy. It encourages the savings habit, provides safety to rural and urban enterprise and productive individuals. It generates long term investible funds for infrastructure building.

India as a country is under–insured in the urban as well as the rural areas. Only 35 percent of the 250 million insurable population is insured. There exists a vast potential in the rural areas where more than 70% of our population lives. But it is common perception and belief amongst the insurance companies that it is expensive to do business in rural areas. The present Study on attitudes of rural customers throws lights on all vital issues of rural insurance, and covers opinion of insurance customers, insurance agents and business development executives selling life insurance policies. The study attempts to understand level of awareness of rural customers in order to suggest strategies for tapping untapped market. The study aimed at a thorough investigation into various issues which are the challenges in promnotion of life insurance business in rural areas.