Women in urban India registered a sharp increase in life insurance ownership and awareness over the last 12 months, according to Max Life Insurance's India Protection Quotient 2.0 (IPQ 2.0) survey conducted in association with Kantar and released a day before the Mother's Day.
While life insurance ownership witnessed 8 per cent increase to 67 per cent among women, term insurance awareness rose by 11 per cent to 55 per cent and term insurance ownership witnessed a 7 per cent increase to 26 per cent.
This has led to an increase in the overall protection quotient, which is higher at 35 for women this year as compared to 33 last year IPQ 1.0 survey.
Max Life India Protection Quotient 2.0 surveyed a total of 7,014 respondents across 25 cities comprising of six metros, nine tier 1 and 10 tier 2 cities.
Along with financial preparedness, the notions of who is a breadwinner also changed rapidly among women in metros, tier 1 and tier 2 cities.
However, there are still 19 per cent working women in metros, 9 per cent working women in tier 1 and 15 per cent working women in tier 2 cities that do not consider themselves the breadwinner and cited that as a reason for not buying term insurance.
"It is heartening to witness an increase in India protection quotient for women and subsequent improvement in their financial preparedness to face future uncertainties," said Aalok Bhan, Director and Chief Marketing Officer at Max Life.
IPQ 2.0 shows other notable differences as well in the savings and investment mindset of women across metros, tier 1 and tier 2 cities of India. Women in metros are more concerned about finances for their children's education and marriage as compared to women in tier 1 and 2 cities.
While finances for children's education is a key cause of anxiety for 62 per cent women in metros, 56 per cent women in tier 1 and 54 per cent women in tier 2 cities are anxious about the same.
Finances for children's marriage is a concern for 62 per cent metro women, 53 per cent tier 1 and 52 per cent tier 2 women.
( With inputs from ANI )