Abstract
In India's developing economy, the rural population is vulnerable to a broad range of risks and crises that directly affect its livelihood. These risks directly affect the level and/or sources of income and productive assets of these households. The study aimed to identify the most common risks and crises that rural households face; ways and means of households' response to such crises and risks; and potential demand for microinsurance in rural areas.
Although the study identifies variety of risks and crises, which are faced by rural households in Uttar Pradesh, death, sickness, agriculture and livestock related shocks are ranked high not only in terms of financial pressure experienced by the poor, but also in terms of their frequency of occurrence. The study argues that there is clear demand for providing the poor with insurance services to help them better manage risk both ex ante and ex post. The lessons of microcredit products should be extended to insurance products also.
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