Insurance schemes for women, rural poor get Rs.15 bn

New Delhi, July 31 : The government Thursday released Rs.15 billion for augmenting two schemes of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) targeted at women and rural landless households.

Of this, Rs.10 billion will go towards providing an insurance cover to an additional 10 million rural landless households, while Rs.5 billion has been released for a social security fund LIC maintains for women's self-help groups, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said.

He was speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Under the scheme for the rural landless, called the Aam Admi Bima Yojna (AABJ), the LIC provides death and disability benefits to the head of a family or one of its earning members.

"The fresh funds released will meet the central government's liability toward its share of premium payment for an additional one crore (10 million) beneficiaries," Dasmunsi said.

A Sep 30, 2009 target has been set for achieving this.

The scheme was announced in the budget for fiscal 2007-08 and was allocated a corpus of Rs.10 billion for covering 10 million rural households.

Families covered under the scheme are entitled to receive Rs.75,000 in case the head or earning member of the household dies in an accident or is permanently disabled.

In case of natural death or partial disability, the benefits amount to Rs.37,500.

The annual premium per family is Rs.200, to be equally shared by the centre and the concerned state government.

The Rs.5 billion released for the LIC's social security fund will go toward the government's 50 percent share of the premium under the Janashree Bima Yojna (JBY) for women's self-help groups, Dasmunsi said.

The annual premium is Rs.200 and the concerned state government pays the balance 50 percent.

"LIC will cover over 250,000 women's self-help groups under JBY by March 31, 2009," the minister said.