Start in the living room. The sofa. The television. The sound system your partner insisted on. The rug you picked up from that trip to Jaipur. The bookshelf, the lamps, the curtains. Rough number so far? Now move to the kitchen. The refrigerator, the washing machine, the microwave, the mixie, the coffee maker, the water purifier. The bedroom — your laptop, your phone charger, the air conditioner, the almirah full of sarees and jewellery you've accumulated over fifteen years. The kids' room. Your home office if you work from home.
Add it up. For most Indian households, the number sits between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 15 lakh. For households with good electronics, some jewellery, and decent furniture — it's often higher. You've probably never calculated it. Most people haven't.
Now ask yourself: if all of it disappeared tomorrow — fire, flood, burglary — what would you do?
The numbers that should make you uncomfortable
In the first nine months of 2024, extreme weather events in India destroyed 2,35,862 houses and buildings. India experienced extreme weather on 86% of days that year. A burglary, robbery, or break-in occurs every three minutes in India. In 2022 alone, over 6,52,000 theft cases were reported — and those are only the ones that made it into the statistics.
These aren't distant statistics. They're the numbers behind the WhatsApp messages your college group sends each other after a neighbourhood flood. The ones your mother forwards about break-ins in the area. The ones you read about and think: that won't happen to me.
It might not. But the question isn't whether it will happen. The question is: if it did, what would you actually be able to replace?
The assumption that catches everyone
Most people assume their home is covered. They're not wrong, exactly — just not right in the way they think. If you own your home and have a home loan, your bank almost certainly insisted on structure insurance. That covers the walls, the roof, the floors. It does not cover a single thing inside.
If you rent — and a significant and growing proportion of urban Indian women do — you probably have no insurance on your home at all. Not the structure (that's the landlord's problem), and not the contents (which nobody mentioned and nobody bought).
"I assumed my housing society had cover. My landlord assumed I had cover. Between us, nothing had cover. The laptop, the jewellery, the appliances — all gone."
Even among homeowners, contents insurance — separate from structure insurance — is bought by a small fraction of Indian households. The cover that protects everything inside your home, the things you actually chose and paid for and use every day, is the most overlooked gap in personal protection.
What's actually inside your home
Do this exercise — not as a hypothetical, as an actual number:
- Refrigerator, washing machine, microwave Rs 60,000–1,20,000
- Television and entertainment setup Rs 40,000–1,50,000
- Laptops and phones Rs 60,000–2,00,000
- Air conditioners (2–3 units) Rs 60,000–1,50,000
- Furniture — beds, sofas, dining table Rs 80,000–3,00,000
- Jewellery and valuables Rs 1,00,000–5,00,000+
- Clothing, books, kitchen equipment, décor Rs 50,000–1,50,000
That's not an unusual household. That's a fairly ordinary one. Now imagine replacing all of it — not because you're upgrading, but because it's gone — at the same time, with no notice, while you're dealing with the trauma of whatever happened.
How much of that sits in a savings account you could access immediately?
If you work from home, it's worse
For women who run their businesses from home — and there are many — the calculation compounds. Your laptop isn't just a personal device. It's your client work, your proposals, your creative output, your income stream. Your external drives, your camera equipment, your studio setup — all of it is at home, and none of it is covered by a standard home policy unless you've specifically declared it as business use.
A single fire in a home office doesn't just destroy your belongings. It destroys your business continuity at the same time. Two disasters for the price of one.
The renter's specific problem
If you rent, the conversation about home insurance probably never happened. Your landlord insures the structure because the bank requires it on any mortgaged property, or because she's a careful landlord. That insurance covers her walls and her floors. It covers nothing that belongs to you.
Renters in India are systematically unprotected. It's not irresponsible — it's a gap in awareness that the industry has never properly addressed. Contents insurance for renters exists, is available, costs around Rs 3,000–6,000 a year, and is bought by almost nobody.
What good cover actually includes
A proper home contents policy covers your belongings against fire, flood, burglary, and a range of other events. The better ones include:
Replacement value rather than depreciated value — so you get what it costs to replace the item today, not what it was worth after three years of depreciation. Jewellery and valuables up to a declared limit. Electronics including laptops and phones. Documents — replacement of official documents is often included and often overlooked. Some extend to cover business equipment declared at home.
What they typically don't cover without specific declaration: jewellery above a certain value, antiques, art, and business equipment used professionally. These need to be declared separately — which most people don't know and therefore don't do.
The question worth sitting with
Not: do you have home insurance? You might. But: does your home insurance actually cover what's inside your home, at replacement cost, including your jewellery, your electronics, and if you work from home, your business equipment?
For most women who've answered honestly, the answer is some version of: probably not fully.
The fix is straightforward and inexpensive. What's missing is the moment of actually sitting down to calculate what you'd lose — and recognising that the number is large enough to matter.
Walk through your home. Add it up. Then decide.