Saral Jeevan Bima offers ₹25 lakh life cover from ₹550 a month, aims to narrow India's insurance protection gap

Standardised term insurance product Saral Jeevan Bima can play a key role in bridging India's wide life insurance protection gap by offering affordable life cover starting at around ₹550 per month for a ₹25 lakh sum assured, according to Policybazaar.

India continues to have one of the world's largest life insurance protection gaps. While awareness of financial protection has improved in recent years, affordability, low awareness, and product complexity remain major barriers to term insurance adoption. As the insurance industry works towards the goal of 'Insurance for All by 2047', simple and standardised products such as Saral Jeevan Bima are expected to improve access to life insurance, particularly among first-time buyers and underserved customer segments.

Introduced as a regulator-mandated standard term insurance product, Saral Jeevan Bima has been designed to make life insurance simpler, more affordable, and easier to compare across insurers. The policy offers a sum assured ranging from ₹5 lakh to ₹50 lakh and is available to individuals between 18 and 65 years of age.

The plan offers policy terms ranging from five to 40 years, with customers having the flexibility to choose either regular or limited premium payment options. As a pure term insurance policy, it does not provide any maturity benefit if the policyholder survives the policy term.

The policy comes with a waiting period of 45 days from the date of commencement, although this condition does not apply in the event of accidental death.

Policybazaar said the product also caters to eligible individuals who do not have conventional income proof but can establish their income through surrogate methods, subject to the insurer's underwriting norms. The company said this feature could help improve insurance penetration among self-employed individuals, freelancers and workers in the informal sector.

An illustration shared by the company showed that a 30-year-old opting for a ₹25 lakh life cover with a 30-year policy term would pay a premium of about ₹590 per month, or ₹6,600 annually. If the policyholder dies during the 10th year of the policy, the nominee would receive the entire ₹25 lakh sum assured as the death benefit.

According to Policybazaar, Saral Jeevan Bima is particularly relevant for first-time insurance buyers, young earners, self-employed professionals, freelancers, gig workers and customers in Tier II and Tier III cities seeking affordable financial protection.

Varun Agarwal said Saral Jeevan Bima remains one of India's most underutilised financial protection products despite its affordability and simple structure. "At a time when the insurance industry is working towards bridging the protection gap, millions of Indian families, particularly first-time earners, self-employed individuals, gig workers and households in Tier II and Tier III cities continue to remain uninsured. Life insurance protection is available from as little as ₹550 per month for a ₹25 lakh cover. Affordability is no longer the biggest barrier. Instead, low awareness, misconceptions around eligibility, and the perception that term insurance is complicated or expensive continue to prevent vulnerable families from securing adequate financial protection," Agarwal said.