Rag pickers take matter to regional branch of insurance company

Picking up the cudgels for over 150 rag pickers, the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtkari Panchayat is continuing the campaign against the New India Assurance insurance company for rejecting too many claims on technical grounds.

Picking up the cudgels for over 150 rag pickers, the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtkari Panchayat (KKPKP) is continuing the campaign against the New India Assurance insurance company for rejecting too many claims on technical grounds.

After leading a rag pickers’ rally on last Friday, the company without much result, it has taken up the matter with the regional branch of the insurance company based in Mumbai.

As the Pune Municipal Corporation pays the premium for the rag pickers, which is to the tune of over 5 lakh per annum for over 5,500 rag pickers, the corporation has written to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) regarding the issue. However, little has come of it till now.

According to the KKPKP, the claim settlement was relatively smooth and differences were settled through discussion from Janary 2003 to January 2007. “Clauses pertaining to delayed intimation and delayed submission of claims were not enforced and likewise the KKPKP did not claim interest when claim settlements were delayed,” said Lakshmi Narayan, general secretary of KKPKP.

Among the reasons, cited for claim rejection, one is that the insured women delay in submitting their documents and papers, causing the company to reject their claims. Members of KKPKP say that as most of the women live a hand-to-mouth existence, they end up taking loans to pay hospital bills. The bills are also paid in installments, and the women are able to get hold of the bills only after all the installments are paid, causing them to miss deadlines.

In the last two years, Narayan has said that the claims accepted by the company have taken a drastic fall. From 109 settled claims in 2006, the number of claims in 2007 came down to 36 in 2007 and 16 in 2008.