The concept of social protection falls under the purview of Social Risk Management and it consists of several public measures like, reducing vulnerability, improving consumption and enhancing equity which contributes to the economic development in a participating manner. The Government of India operates the Jana Shree Bima Yojana scheme through the Life Insurance Corporation of India for the unorganized rural and urban sector for people below poverty line and marginally above poverty line. An evaluation study was conducted to evaluate the functioning of the Group Insurance Scheme for agricultural laborers in the Union Territory of Pondicherry. The scheme covered 69.35% of total (72,095) agricultural laborers living below poverty line in the age group of 18-60 years. The scheme is having Viable Business Proposition because it captures the four key aspects of affordability, insurability, marketability and profitability of Viable Business Proposition. The analysis of cost-benefit ratio for the insured person shows the welfare effect to the agricultural laborers in the Union Territory of Pondicherry through this scheme. The government must continue to subsidize the premium to make the scheme continue to be Viable Business Proposition by looking into the welfare effect that accrues to the society. Enough propaganda should be given to the present scheme to make the public aware about such social protection to the low-income population.

A substantial proportion of the labor force in developing countries is in the rural areas engaged primarily in agriculture, which is dominated by small and subsistence farming. Due to low and unpredictable incomes, many are employed as wage laborers. Most of such employment occurs outside the regulatory framework, with little control over the conditions of work and remuneration which falls under a situation called informal economy—a state of economy where economic activities remain outside the official institutional framework. In developing nations, the risk faced by workers in the informal sector is alarming contributing to income insecurity and vulnerability. These workers have limited choice and face greater uncertainty due to their exclusion from formal labor markets. They often lack information about uncertainty, especially during the period of sudden social and economic changes. Thus, people falling under such informal sectors require an effective social protection mechanism.

Social protection deals with public intervention mechanisms to help individuals, households and communities to effectively manage income uncertainty. The logic behind such interventions is to bring an economically sustainable development with participatory approach in poverty reduction (Holzmann and Jorgensen, 2000). According to the International Labour Organization (ILO, 2000), social protection means "the protection which society provides for its members through a series of public measures like to offset the absence or substantial reduction of income resulting from various contingencies (notably sickness, injury, incapacity, death of the bread winner).'' Social protection includes public social security schemes, private or non-statutory schemes with similar objectives such as mutual benefit and occupational pension schemes. Traditional measures of social protection imply a temporary solution to the problems and fail to address basic causes associated with insecurity and vulnerability (Canagarajah and Sethuraman, 2001).

The concept of social protection falls under the purview of Social Risk Management (SRM) and it consists of several public measures like, reducing vulnerability, improving consumption and enhancing equity which contributes to economic development in a participating manner. In developing nations, social protection for workers in the informal sector should address two types of risks (1) Working environment risks and (2) Informality status risks. Holzmaan and Jorgensen (1999) reported that though income risk is associated with individuals, the measures to overcome this needs a co-operative or social approach. Hence, any well structured social protection program should intend to (a) reduce the vulnerability of low-income families so as to enhance consumption and access to basic services by reducing the uncertainty faced by poor families (b) allow for better consumption throughout the life cycle of families and consistently distributing welfare evenly to them and (c) enhance equity in case of exposure to shocks and the effects of shocks associated with uncertainty.

Risk And Insurance Journal, Social Insurance, Agricultural Laborers, Micro Finance, Social Risk Management, Informal Economy, Social Protection Mechanism, Micro Insurance, Non-Governmental Organizations, Jana Shree Bima Yojana, JBY, Viable Business Proposition, VBP.