School offers personal insurance scheme to students

Surat, Aug 11 (UNI) A school situated in South Gujarat's tribal belt of village Dharampur has come up with a novel idea---offering personal insurance policies to all students above 12 years of age so that they can fulfil their dream of pursuing higher studies without having their parents worried about arranging money.

Radhaba Patel Vidhyalay is perhaps the first school in South Gujarat to become ''Bima School'' to give policies like Jeevan Kishore of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to half of total 600 students.

Chairman of Vidhyalay Gopal Patel said ''It all started in 2005-06 when we decided the scheme so that students who want to pursue higher studies don't have to think about money. Dharampur is a tribal belt and people are not much economically strong to bear the expenses of higher studies.'' He said ''under this initiative, students attaining the age of 12 will be given the policy, so that their parents don't have to think of arranging finances for their child's future studies. The school has received Rs 5,000 from LIC's Valsad branch and Rs 10,000 from Surat Division of LIC for initiating the scheme.'' Parents are also happy with the school's initiative, who hailed it as a right decision. Rajesh Patel, who has taken a policy of Rs five lakh for his daughter Neha, said ''At a time when all schools think of imposing various types of fees, Patel Vidhyalay's proposal is unique and unusual one. I always used to worry about how to save money for Neha, as she wants to pursue medicine but, after taking this policy, I am little bit stress-free,'' he added.

The premium of these schemes is borne by the parents. After the maturity of the policy, after a period of 5-10 years, a student who has taken a policy of Rs one lakh will get Rs 20,000 after every two years in three installments. While, rest of the amount along with bonus will be delivered to the student after the maturity period. If any student's parent dies in a mishap during the policy period, then the student will be entitled for all the benefits of the scheme, without having to pay any premium, he added.

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