Seminar on "Life and General Insurance" was organised by M/s. Samarpit - Centre for Poverty Alleviation & Social Research, (SAMARPIT) on 7th December, 2012 at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. Two Deputy Directors from IRDAviz.Mrs. KGPL Ramadevi and Mr. Gautam Kumar inaugurated the Seminar which was largely attended by the local people and women from Self Help Groups/ Consumer bodies connected with the activities of the Samarpit - Centre for Poverty Alleviation & Social Research.

The first session was taken by Mr Gautam Kumar, Deputy Director, IRDA who has mentioned in simple terms about the benefits of life insurance. It was followed by a session on Motor Insurance by Mr. Santanu Ghosh of M/s.Oriental Company.The 3rd session was focussing on Health insurance in various types of health insurance policies were described by Mr. Gautam Kumar.Mrs. KGPL Ramadevi , Deputy Director handled two sessions viz.i) Prevention of Mis selling in life and health insurance; ii) Grievance measures for protecting the insurance policyholders.The participants were made to understand the concept of mis-selling,the reason for them to be aware of their rights,Dos- and Do not’s while purchasing insurance,filling up of the proposal forms,importance of being truthful while furnishing information andthe channels available for grievance, in case if they found any deficiency of service etc.Virtual tour about Integrated Grievance Management System as well as consumer education website was also included during the presentations. The entire presentation was in bi-lingual i.e. using English script but conversation and explanation was made in Hindi, for easy understanding of the participants whose literacy levels in general and insurance literacy in particular are very low.

The insurance awareness campaign of IRDA reaching interior and smaller places is highly welcomed by the local participants. There was a strong feeling that IRDA drive towards consumer awareness through Seminars need to be widened and strengthen further in order to take insurance message to the door steps of common man in India.

The first technical sessions on the underwriting practices and role of agents, brokers was made by Mr. S. K. Jain, Director, Insurance Brokers Association of India. The second session on the claim procedures and role of surveyors and investigators was handled by a team of surveyors. During the post-lunch sessions, Two Officials representing two licensed TPAs spoke about “importance of health insurance and the role of TPAs” respectively.The other speakers include representatives of insurance companies and spoke on the “Grievance Redressal Mechanism available to the policyholder” which is the last technical session of the seminar. Summing up, the Organisers mentioned in the valedictory that the seminar was found to be very useful for the participants.

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