India is known for a lot of things: great food, lavish Bollywood productions, some of the most beautiful women in the world (check the Miss World stats), but this next thing is a real humdinger.
With weddings easily topping the million-dollar mark, India is also home to a thriving wedding insurance industry. Why wedding insurance, you might ask? Such a thing is virtually unknown in the Western world.
In a developing country like India, however, where weddings have become more complex and elaborate affairs and it can take several years’ salary to cover wedding costs, insurance is becoming an increasingly popular way to ensure the whole thing goes over smoothly and without added expense.
Insurance companies are also trying to capitalize on India’s burgeoning middle class, which has taken a particular interest in insurances of all kinds – life, property, accident, and the like.
Meanwhile, young couples, many of whom fund their own wedding festivities, seem to make up the bulk of wedding insurance buyers, as the idea of wedding insurance or alluding to something going wrong at a wedding has been stigmatized in previous generations.
So what does wedding insurance in India cover? Insurance companies offer plans to cover costs incurred in the event of postponement or cancellation of a wedding.
Causes for postponement or cancellation can include the bride or groom taking ill due to food poisoning; death of a close relative who is involved in the wedding ceremony; loss or theft of jewelry or other valuable items; the bride or groom not showing up on time as a result of transportation failure; the groom not showing up due to unpaid dowry; or even acts of terrorism.
When you’re spending that much money, this doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. I guess it just depends on how much the insurance costs!