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The urban Indian working women have prioritised savings and investments as the pandemic has made them more concerned about saving for the old age, a survey has found.
The working women are prioritising savings and investments over discretionary spending with as much as 52 per cent of their income being parked for such goals, followed by basic expenses constituting up to 39 per cent of the total income, according to 'Max Life India Protection Quotient 3.0' survey.
The urban working women are spending 9 per cent of their income on luxury expenses.
The IPQ (India Protection Quotient) in its third edition, amidst an year ravaged by the pandemic, observed working women's savings objectives also transitioned due to the health emergency.
As many as 56 per cent of these women saved for old age security, 64 per cent saved for kid's education and 39 per cent saved for untimely death of breadwinner, while 40 per cent saved for medical emergencies.
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"A combination of increased awareness and ownership registered an increase in their overall protection quotient which stood at 39 for working women now, a significant improvement from 34 as per IPQ 2.0 survey, and almost at par with the protection quotient for working men which stood at 40," as per the IPQ 3.0.
The survey jointly instituted in 2019 by Max Life and consulting firm Kantar, said despite increasing financial vulnerabilities due to Covid-19, the urban Indian working women came out to be more financially resilient than the men.
Awareness and ownership of life and term insurance increased in working women from a year ago, their knowledge index --degree to which they understand life insurance products--improved by 11 points to 55 points in IPQ 3.0. For the working men, it stood at 57.
"Strikingly, working women's term insurance awareness was also at a higher 64 per cent as compared to working men who displayed lesser term awareness at 62 per cent," the survey pointed out.
Even as a lesser 69 per cent working women owned life insurance as opposed to 73 per cent working men, women were found to be more attitudinally secure during Covid-19.
As also, 59 per cent working women compared to 57 per cent working men were found to be financially secure.
"The recent survey reflected a superior uptake in women's life insurance ownership and awareness, marking progress in a tough year. For the first time, working women have displayed higher awareness of term insurance than working men, and were comparatively more perceptive of the ability of their term insurance cover to ensure complete financial protection," Aalok Bhan, Director and Chief Marketing Officer, Max Life Insurance said.
He said survey findings will help women be more aware and embrace comprehensive financial protection in the long term.
Among others, fear of infection, untimely death of breadwinner, job security emerged as the topmost anxieties in the wake of Covid-19. While the pandemic made the women to be more proactive about their financial plannings, their life insurance purchase intention was found to be higher then urban working men.
As many as 69 per cent of the women said they were proactive about their financial planning now, at par with 70 per cent of their male counterpart.
"Consequently, working women's life insurance purchase intention of 31 per cent was considerably higher in comparison to working men, who displayed a lower purchase intention of 26 per cent."
Also, the urban working women prioritize health and fitness, with inclination towards using health app.
The survey was conducted in top 25 urban metro, tier I, tier II cities. The top six metro -- Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai along with nine tier-I locations -- Ludhiana, Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Vizag, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Pune were part of the survey.
The 10 tier II stations were Dehradun, Moradabad, Guwahati, Bokaro, Kolhapur, Jamnagar, Raipur, Ujjain, Hubli-Dharwad, Tiruchirappalli.
The minimum sample to conclude any findings of the study was 270 with an error margin of +/-5.964 per cent.
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