Abstract:
Micro-insurance is supposed to reduce not only the risk of poverty from negative
consequences, but also to improve the social wellbeing of the vulnerable crowds.
Thus the popularity of the Micro-insurance in a society is a significant tool to improve
those with marginal social status to participate fully in economic and social life. Tea
industry in estate sector in Sri Lankan is still suffering the negative consequences
accounting to 8.8% of poverty while the highest recording in Uwa province was by
13.5% in 2013. The study was conducted to reveal the factors affecting unpopularity
of micro-insurance among the labourers in the tea industry in estate sector with
special references to Welimada Secretariat Division. The objectives of this study
were: the first to explore the factors more influence the unpopularity of micro
insurance among laborers, the second is to measure the impact of such factors on
poverty and the third is to examine issues and challenges faced by the providers of
Micro-insurance in distribution mechanism. Quantitative research method has been
carried out to initiate the study with the sample of 218 laborers for the primary data
collection through a structured questionnaire designed on literature review. Data were
analyzed by a regression model and categorical data analysis. The results proved that
age, marital status, educational level, income level, monthly expenditure and the
number of children had a significant impact on the unpopularity for micro-insurance
under categorical data while regression analysis showed that the knowledge of micro
insurance (p = 0.818) and the trust on micro-insurance (p = 0.857) is significantly
different from zero. The providers of micro-insurance are faced with huge obstacles
due to the failure of proper awareness and position of different micro-insurance
products. The poverty alleviation mechanism in the country must be addressed bydesign tailor made micro-insurance products rather than business development to reap
the real fruit of micro-insurance.
