73% of labour force uninsured, says Sri Lanka Life Insurance Association

By Shannon Jayawardena

Sri Lanka Life Insurance Association recently revealed that while only 27% of the labour force is insured a total of 73% is yet uninsured. The whole purpose of being covered is to have hope when you are at your least. Nevertheless no actions have been taken by authorities to aid the matter.

The Insurance Association of Sri Lanka President Deepthi Lokuarachchi told the media that the main reasons for this were the low income values of the local people, the lack of awareness among the public and the extended family concept which makes our culture different from other cultures.

However when questioned at a press conference held on 30 January 2018, the institution admitted to having not taken drastic or long-term measures to solve the conundrum, saying that proposals will be put forward and actions will be implemented to soon enhance life insurance in the country at the upcoming marketing and sales forum.

He stressed on the fact that: “All though there are 26 players in the field, there only 16 companies that are dedicated to do life insurance. At the same time, there are few in general who contribute. The acceptance of the concept of insurance has been very limited for many reasons.”

“As a country we are used to having a lot of social measures as many things are provided free of charge by successive states. Therefore the tendency of the willingness of the people to buy insurance and protection measures have been very limited.”

Deepthi also emphasised on the fact that even on the protection aspect, there are many young families who depend on their extended families once the head of the family is no more. Those are some of the aspects that have left many people further away from insurance. 

“As a whole the insurance companies don’t encourage malpractice in the industry. So basically we as management in the companies always advocate good governance and have monitoring mechanisms to ensure that the customers and their buying power and innocence are not taken for granted,” he stressed.

Deepthi stated that insurance is a risk taking business that does not take deposits. People need to think of the obligations and encumbrance they have to face when they come of age and of protection and the future in the context of the society when they are no longer here. 

Pic by Gitika Talukdar