DHAN Foundation, India

ICMIF currently has one active country intervention programme in India and that is being managed through the DHAN Foundation, for which development in terms of microinsurance means empowering people to help themselves. DHAN’s mission is ‘Building people and sustainable institutions with values driven ethics and democratic processes to enable the poor in an inclusive and ecologically balanced way.’ Risk and vulnerability management is therefore integral part of their life and health insurance strategy.

Key Facts:

• Families Reached – 17,50,000
• Number of Primary groups – 66,000
• Number of Peoples @ Federations – 409
• Number of States – 14
• Number of Staff – 800
• Number of people declared to have moved out of poverty – 0.6m

Its approach to development has been successful due to many interconnected partnerships. The foundation organises people into community institutions, creates an enabling environment and then adapts technology to help deliver the customers’ needs.

The community institutions are owned and governed by the local communities with the principles of mutuality, self-help, and self-reliance. Technical support and human resource are provided by DHAN. Their functions are varied and include: providing platforms for savings and affordable credit; creating a safety net through insurance and pensions; livelihoods promotion through skill training and market linkages; health initiatives including preventive and curative health care; natural resource management through renovation and maintenance of water bodies/coastal resources; agriculture development; grassroots democracy; and risk management which is an integral component of all initiatives. As the institution grows, it creates specialised subsidiaries which are promoted for specific themes thus making the federation collective.

Risk management handled by DHAN focuses on: reducing either the frequency of loss or magnitude of loss or both; risk reduction; risk retention; and risk transfer mechanisms simultaneously to complement each other plus insurance for reducing the risk by way of compensating the loss arising due to an insured event.

A number of programmes are now being scaled up: Life Mutual Program for all, irrespective of upper age limit (ICMIF 5-5-5); Health Mutual Program for secondary health care (ICMIF 5-5-5); Livestock Mutual program for all cattle including indigenous/exotic breeds; and Crop Mutual risk sharing which is currently in its pilot phase.

There are numerous benefits from being a ‘people’s organisation’. It promotes participative and vibrant grass-root democracy and offers non-monetised mutuality practices such as participation in funeral function; early diagnosis of diseases through health camps; and visits to hospitals by mutual leaders. It enhances sustainability and effectiveness in poverty reduction through comprehensive risk management practices and promotes gender equity. The peoples’ organisation strengthens the demand system of the poor at the grass roots level and creates multi-faceted partnerships through nested structures. It strives to enable the poor to shape their own destinies; ensures co-learning amongst member organisations; and provides a scale advantage.

Looking ahead, DHAN plans to extend its service into underprivileged communities in order to increase access to social protection and mutual microinsurance. It will deliver a comprehensive and integrated approach for context-based risk management services and support awareness and capacity building programs for all stake holders and actors. This will include the development of more complex products, including disaster and climate risk reduction products, as well as gender-sensitive products and services and additionally, it will issue grant support for pilots and research projects.