By IANS,
New Delhi : For more than half of urban families planning and funding for their child’s education takes priority over investing in retirement plans or medical insurance, a survey released Wednesday said.
The Young Scholar Insights survey conducted by Life Insurance Company Aviva found that 67 percent of 2,250 respondents in 10 cities surveyed thought investing in child’s education if the first priority.
“The survey suggests parents believe ‘Education is Insurance’ to secure a brighter future for kids. The parents have started investing early for their child’s future and by 50 percent of respondents begin to invest before the child turned three,” T.R. Ramachandran, CEO and managing director of Aviva Life Insurance, told reporters here.
According to survey, 93 percent of parents mentioned college education as the key trigger for savings for their children while 80 percent quoted school education, reflecting the concern over the rising cost of education.
Aviva also launched a three-year Street to School programme along with NGOs Save the Children and Child Rights and You (CRY) that aims to provide education to 50,000 underprivileged children in the country.
“Around 50 percent of children between age group 6 to 18 years do not go to school at all. Through our new initiative, we seek to empower underprivileged children with education, thereby insuring their future,” said Ramachandran.
Aviva will create a corpus of over Rs.40 million for the project and money will be utilised for various projects across the country.
Yogita Verma Sehgal, director resource mobilisation, CRY said: “We view the association with Aviva as an illustration of the extent to which corporate houses can work towards greater social justice. At CRY, we believe that it is the right of every child to receive quality education.”
Thomas Chandy, CEO of Save the Children, said: “India has the shocking distinction of having the largest number of street children in the world. Through this project, we hope to provide quality, relevant education to street children.”