On the foundation day of LIC, on 1st. September, 1956, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India said, "The Life Insurance Corporation of India will enter upon its career of service to the country today. It has set before itself high and difficult objectives... will encourage the habit of thrift...enhance resources for economic development. Its expansion will mean that Life Insurance has been carried to every corner of the country and that the savings of the people are being mobilised for nation-building activities."
And how LIC has achieved its goal are evident from the messages given by successive Governments. On completion of the 20 year of its journey, the then Finance Minister, in his message dated 26th. August, 1976 said, "The cumulative savings of millions of people have been used by the Corporation in a manner contributing towards making life of the common man happier. While insurance cover has been provided to weaker sections of the community, investments have been made in socially purposive projects to help improve standards of living of the people."
However, the start of the journey was neither encouraging nor welcomed by many. At the time of nationalisation, the number of policies in force of all the units was about 50 lakhs, assuring a total of more than Rs. 1,250 crore, against which assets valued at Rs. 411 crore were held.
And, today as on 31st. March, 2018, the Life Fund of LIC stands at 27,23,583.71 crore.
The first known social security scheme was introduced when Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar founded the "Hindu Family Annuity Fund" in 1872 in Calcutta. This company was started to give financial help to Hindu widows and orphans through annuities. The fund was created by voluntary donations and by subscriptions.
And then, in the year 1988, Govt. of India relied on LIC to set a social security fund with a corpus of 100 crore for weaker sections of the society.
This trust of Government continues till now when we find that LIC, and not any Bank, was entrusted for administering the 'Vaya Vandana Yojana' which is basically a fixed deposit scheme giving higher rate of interest than banks. Even in respect of 'Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana', LIC is the main partner of the Govt. in implementing the scheme, which gives coverage through 17 nationalised banks.
The LIC Act provided for security of Policy moneys by the Central Government, but the fact remains that LICI has many a times rescued the Central Government in achieving its financial objectives. People's trust in LIC has increased manifold during the last 62 years due to its dedicated initiatives and concern for the people. LIC's share of complaints received for non payment of claim was 11.28% of total complaints whereas LIC settled more than 87.48% of total death claims(individual). LIC has responded favourably to 81.8 % of complaints whereas the private insurers have responded favourably only in 26.4% of complaints during 17-18.
And, all of us who were companion to this glorious journey of the Corporation for more than 3 decades feel happy to find that we have given our blood to form the bone marrow of our beloved organisation. Even though, post retirement, sometimes we are hurt due to the 'not so human approach' of our organisation to address the needs of our old days, it does not in any way, lessen our pride for the great organisation for which we worked.
Courtesy: LIC Website; 'YOGAKSHEMA' September 2016 issue; 'YOGAKSHEMA' Golden Jubilleee Special issue; Tryst with trust: The LIC story; LOK SABHA website.
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