Workplace injury claims from India’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have increased 31% over the past financial year, with sectoral and seasonal patterns indicating shifting risk profiles and wider use of insurance, according to a new report from BimaKavach. Based on data from more than 6,000 MSMEs across over five sectors, the study compares claims trends between FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26. BimaKavach said the higher claims volume reflects a mix of increased workplace activity, improved reporting, and broader take-up of cover, supported by faster digital policy issuance.
According to BimaKavach, many MSMEs still tend to revisit workplace risks only after incidents affect production, margins, or continuity. The firm said the latest numbers suggest that as reporting becomes more structured and insurance coverage expands, exposures that previously went unrecorded are now more visible in claims data. Tejas Jain, founder and chief executive of BimaKavach, said worker safety concerns are now intersecting more directly with operational risk. “At a time when conversations around worker safety are gaining importance, workplace risk is often underestimated until it starts affecting operations. With better reporting today, these gaps are becoming harder to ignore,” Jain said, as reported by Business World. He said MSMEs are beginning to consider not only physical hazards but also compliance gaps and operational weak points that can disrupt business.
The report finds that factory- and plant-based operations continue to account for the largest share of workplace injury claims. Machinery incidents, slips and falls, and construction-related accidents are among the most frequent causes cited in manufacturing and related segments. In contrast, information technology and technology-enabled services report near-zero workplace injury claims despite holding a substantial number of policies. The divergence reinforces how claim frequency remains closely tied to the physical nature of work and on-site exposures.
The data also shows a clear seasonal pattern. July accounts for 13.4% of annual claims, making it the month with the highest share of cases. March and June/October follow as other peak periods. Overall, the monsoon months from June to September contribute 43% of total claims, with outdoor work, slippery conditions, and logistics disruptions appearing as recurring risk factors. These trends may be used in underwriting, pricing, and risk engineering discussions with MSME clients, particularly in construction, logistics, and manufacturing, where clusters of incidents in specific months can influence portfolio results.
A key change highlighted in the report is the speed at which MSMEs are now obtaining insurance cover. BimaKavach said 69.1% of policies in the study are issued on the same day, and more than 82% are activated within three days. Earlier cycles often ranged from three to seven working days. The company linked the shorter turnaround times to digital platforms, reduced documentation, and simpler onboarding processes designed for smaller enterprises.
As a result, more MSMEs are formalising risk transfer and meeting statutory requirements more quickly. Jain said the market’s next stage will be shaped by how effectively this digital infrastructure is used for forward-looking risk management. “As digital adoption improves access and speeds up coverage, the real need now is to move from reacting to risk to staying ahead of it with a more proactive, data-led approach,” Jain said.
Despite wider recognition of workplace exposures, compliance is still the primary reason MSMEs buy insurance. The report notes that 94.6% of businesses purchase workmen’s compensation insurance mainly to meet statutory obligations. Even so, BimaKavach sees initial signs that some firms are using these policies within broader risk management and continuity planning, including employee protection and business interruption considerations.
Geographically, coverage remains concentrated in a few industrial centres. Maharashtra accounts for 20.9% of the policies analysed, followed by Gujarat, Karnataka, and Delhi. Together, these four regions represent more than 51% of total policies in the dataset, reflecting the concentration of industrial and corporate activity and higher levels of compliance. The uneven spread points to potential underinsurance in other states with smaller shares of formal cover.
While the report focuses on physical injuries, accompanying commentary raises concerns about non-physical risks, particularly in digital and services sectors where claim counts are low but workload pressures are high. Dishant Mehta, co-founder and chief technology officer at Kombee, said many organisations have gradually accepted continuous connectivity as standard practice. “We have built systems that never sleep and somehow convinced ourselves that the people running them shouldn’t either. Notifications at midnight, messages over weekends, and the expectation of instant replies, we have normalised all of it quietly,” Mehta said.
Mehta added that longer-term performance depends on clearer boundaries. “The smartest investment any leader can make right now isn’t in another productivity tool. It’s in giving teams real, unambiguous permission to log off and genuinely mean it,” he said, linking such measures to talent retention. These developments may influence future conversations around employee benefits, mental health support, and the definition of work-related risk, even in sectors with little physical injury exposure.
The BimaKavach findings align with a broader global picture of occupational risk. According to the latest International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates, about 2.93 million workers worldwide died from work-related causes in 2019. Of these, 2.6 million deaths, or 89%, were linked to occupational diseases, while occupational accidents accounted for about 330,000 deaths, or 11%. Circulatory diseases, malignant neoplasms, and respiratory diseases together made up nearly three-quarters of work-related mortality.
The ILO also estimates that more than 395 million workers sustained a non-fatal occupational injury in 2019. Work-related deaths increased by more than 12% between 2000 and 2019, a trend the organisation relates both to a more than 28% rise in the global employed population and to improved monitoring and reporting. The combination of rising MSME claims, faster digital distribution, and changing workforce expectations points to ongoing shifts in the market. As MSMEs expand and formalise, insurers, brokers, and risk advisers may need to adjust product design, service models, and data use to address established physical hazards and emerging people-related risks within a more integrated framework.
