A large population of India lives in the rural areas. The impact of risks associated with life and health are far more severe on this population as compared to the urban population with higher levels of income. Birla Sun Life launched its rural program in 2001 to provide insurance to the rural populace of India. This includes the endowment product that provides life cover and guarantees returns to the insured on maturity. By virtue of the benefits it provides, this product has been very well accepted and has gone on to become the most popular product in the rural areas.
With changing times and with increasing disposable incomes in rural areas, we improved our solutions to the rural population and launched two Micro Insurance Products in 2008 which include a pure term and return of premium products. One of the unique features of these products is that they provide a grace period of 180 days as opposed to 30 days for other similar plans in the market. This gives policyholders the flexibility to pay premiums.