An anchor for the choppy seas of life

Why is this the case? The answer is simple. No organisation wants old folk, and there’s plenty of new blood flowing swiftly just outside the door. There are, for instance, plenty of institutions churning out management graduates; and those whose metric certificates and graduation degrees landed people with good jobs 20 or 30 years back are redundant today. Organisations talk of redeployment and reskilling, but it never really works that way. The latest comes from ICICI Bank, where a 40-year-old qualifies for the golden handshake. It was meant earlier for those close to 55 years in corporate calendars and got reduced quickly to 50, then 45 and now 40!

There is always a strong case to be made for downsizing — or rightsizing — but the end result is unemployment for people who are at a critical stage of life, when they have lost the support systems of early adulthood, like parents, for instance. Then there are health problems to cope up with, besides mental trauma. You may have bought a house or a vehicle which becomes a liability as the mortgages and loans have to be serviced. Then, there are children to be educated and settled. Lack of employment translates immediately into trauma for the entire family.

What can one do then? The answer lies in the realm of insurance where general insurance can be expanded to cover “loss of employment”. This is an insurance option which any working person would opt for given the Sword of Damocles lingering over his/her head. In fact, if the age of redundancy is 40 today, tomorrow it could be even lower. You will, therefore, not hesitate to join this scheme because you never can tell when you’ll have to pack up. Besides, there is little security even in the public sector today with disinvestments and privatisation causing upheavals.

Insurance companies need to start schemes, which give those displaced from their jobs a lump sum amount or a pension and such schemes can be drawn based on the age and wage of the insured person. The premium to be paid by a young person will be lower than that paid by a person touching 50, and so on. The amount of insurance can be a fixed sum amount or, better still, linked to the salary drawn by an individual at the time of taking such a policy. There could be conditions attached which would ensure that a person does not draw undue benefit of such a scheme.

This would not only provide some support to the unemployed but also add depth to the insurance business. So what are we waiting for?