New Delhi: Disbursal of claims under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), a life insurance scheme, shot up by 438% in the financial year 2021-22 to 340,192, Business Standard reported, citing government data.
The scheme offers death coverage due to any reason. Persons in the age group of 18-50 years having an individual bank or post office account are entitled to enrol under the scheme. The social security scheme launched in May 2015.
In 2020-21, when India was hit by the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, disbursal of claims under the scheme increased 49.2% to 63,181, data released by the finance ministry on May 9 showed, the newspaper reported.
In the following year, however, disbursal of claims shot up by 438%, as earlier mentioned. This reflects the higher number of deaths during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and also raises questions on the government’s handling of the pandemic situation.
Enrollments under the scheme fell in FY22 by 20.6% to 25.4 million after rising by 191% to 32 million in the financial year 2020-21.
In FY23, annual enrollment under the scheme grew 30%, reaching its highest level at 33 million, the financial daily reported.
People who join the scheme before completing 50 years can continue to have the risk of life covered up to 55 years upon payment of the regular premium annually. This is for the policy years that run from June 1 to May 31.
Under the scheme, life cover of Rs 2 lakh is provided in case of death against a premium of Rs 436 per annum.
India was estimated to have had the highest number of COVID-19 deaths until December 2021 at 4.7 million, according to a World Health Organization report. It had added that India’s COVID-19 death toll was almost 10 times its official tall.
Of its 4.7 million deaths, 0.83 million (17.65%) occurred in 2020, according to the data; the rest were in 2021, as a result of India’s devastating second wave driven by the delta variant.
