Abstract:

The common element about Indonesia, Bangladesh and Malaysia; is the majority of populations are Muslim.  Bangladesh was the earliest country offering variety of microinsurance and microtakaful products, which provides protection to its populations massively.  Indonesia too has started providing the protection to its low income citizen in 2006.  These two (2) countries have similar natural hazards such as flood, droughts, other than that, are cyclones, volcanoes, earthquake and so forth and they are still struggling to overcome their population’s poverty.   They earn their living mainly are from agricultural and living in rural areas.  The proportion of population below national upper poverty line is still high; 17% in Bangladesh and 40% in Indonesia. The poverty in Malaysia is 5%, comprising of poverty of urban and rural areas.  However, there are still millions of Malaysian are unprotected.  This paper is to provide an overview of these three (3) Asian countries on protection plans offered to their low income population. The study is focusing on microinsurance and microtakaful background, demand, distribution and product type in meeting their populations needs thus alleviating their poverty. This paper also provides suggestions in enhancing the existing micro protection features for Malaysian low income population.