An insurance company in the UK recently devised a special policy to reward vegetarians with low premiums.
The reasoning, it is learnt, is because of the belief that a vegetarian lifestyle tends to make one healthier and live longer. The company says this makes vegetarians a better insurance risk.
Vegetarian activist and former PETA India chief Anuradha Sawhney says, “This new policy is positive and quite right in their findings. Vegetarians and vegans are proven to be healthier and live longer, fitter lives. Ninety per cent of diseases are lifestyle-induced, be it diabetes, obesity, hypertension, etc. It all reflects on what an individual eats.”
Dietician Pooja Makhija too feels that such an insurance policy is welcome. She says, “Eating healthy and in moderation is something I’ve always advocated. An all-vegetarian diet for Indians is not new, we have our dals and sabzis as an integral part of our diet unlike the West.”
The insurance companies however say that such an idea will need bandwidth to ascertain the claims by individuals. “If such a policy were to be introduced here, companies will have to properly research into the backgrounds of individuals, verify their vegetarian claims and ascertain that they are indeed wholly vegetarian. I feel the policy would have a lot of takers here as a lot of Indians are vegetarians, mostly due to religious beliefs,” says Amith Deshpande, an insurance agent.
