As per a recent World Health Organization (WHO) report, there are approximately 120 million smokers in India that accounts for 12 per cent of the worlds total smoking population.
The report further stated that each year, over 1 million people die in India due to consumption of tobacco. Of the total Indian smoking population, 70 per cent of the adult males in India smoke while the number of adult female smokers is between 13 15 per cent.
Santosh Agarwal, Chief Business Officer, Life Insurance, Policybazaar.com said, "According to the Indian Heart Association (IHA), due to such a high population of tobacco consumers in India, the country accounts for 83 per cent of the world's heart disease burden, despite having less than 20 per cent of the world's total population."
Santosh Agarwal, Chief Business Officer, Life Insurance, Policybazaar.com further said that smoking does not only affect your health, but it even affects the premium of your life insurance policy considerably. As per several life insurers underwriting rules, the policy premium of a customers life insurance is affected more by the smoking habits than the job profile.
The life insurance premium for people with low risk job profiles like software engineers, bankers and marketing consultants is lower than professionals with high risk job profiles that include construction workers and prison officers.