In India, personal, household and small business assets are often unprotected against disasters. The costs for relief and rehabilitation often rely on aid; but support from outside entities is often unpredictable—leaving the damaged assets of the poor difficult to replace and making recovery difficult. The promotion of microinsurance across India and Asia has enormous potential for offsetting economic losses faced by the poor.

This training manual was developed by the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) based on its long experience on the subject. The Manual covers the following modules: Micro insurance' relevance to CBDRR; Guidelines for developing community driven micro insurance products; and, Assessing Micro Insurance Demand. The manual also includes four case studies of micro insurance initiatives in India, one of which is administered by AIDMI. These cases provide different micro insurance models which are tried and tested as well as lessons learnt.