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Vimo SEWA actively engages with policy makers with the objective of strengthening social protection measures for poor self-employed women.
Vimo SEWA as an Insurance Cooperative
Vimo SEWA would like to register itself as an insurance cooperative. While insurance cooperatives are permitted by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA), the capital requirements for these are the same as that for other insurance companies, viz. Rs. 100 crore or USD 21 million. Vimo SEWA serves poor self-employed women and their families. The premium and sums insured of the policies issued are therefore much smaller than those issued to members of the middle and upper income groups. Vimo SEWA believes that given the modest scale of its insurance operations, its capital requirements do no need to be more than a third (Rs. 30 crore, or USD 7 million approximately) as those of insurance companies issuing high value policies.
Vimo SEWA has been in dialogue with the IRDA and the Ministry of Finance regarding the reduction of capital requirements and developing special regulations for microinsurers.
Carrying forward the Microinsurance Movement
Vimo SEWA has organized three workshops in its efforts to carry the microinsurance agenda forward. In September 2003, Vimo SEWA organized the first National Workshop on Microinsurance at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi , in cooperation with the Government of India, IRDA, LIC and Friends of Women's World Banking, India . A report on this workshop can be accessed using this link. (Link to National Workshop on micro insurance..)
In September 2004, Vimo SEWA, together with the World Bank, New Delhi and CGAP, Washington DC organized a Workshop on Microinsurance at the World Bank in Washington DC . The workshop brought together microinsurance practitioners, researchers, policy makers and academics to discuss how microinsurance activities can be further strengthened.
This was followed by an Exposure Dialogue Programme (EDP) on Social Protection through Microinsurance organized by Vimo SEWA at Ahmedabad in October 2004. This EDP programme provided an opportunity for senior policy makers and practitioners to live with Vimo SEWA members to experience first hand the vulnerabilities and coping strategies used by poor self-employed women and their families. The last day of the EDP was devoted to in-depth discussions on microinsurance, the current challenges and future direction. The paper Microinsurance - State of the Art
 , captures the key issues that emerged in these three meetings.
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