As part of its wider plan to give unique ID cards to every member around the globe, the Memon community has now rolled out the collective health insurance initiative. The drive aims to ensure health security for its members, while lowering burden on the unorganised charity works within the community. There are four million Memons living around the world, including 1.5 million members in India. Three lakh of them reside in Mumbai.
Community's unique ID plan
In 2018, the community launched its unique ID plan, with the aim to undertake a census of its populace and plan charity works accordingly. Under the initiative, Memons runs 22 kinds of social welfare works, including funding for education, medical emergencies and business start-ups. On the premise of the economic status of every member procured via unique IDs, the community will invite its affluent members to sponsor the insurance premiums of underprivileged families. People will be able to sponsor health insurance for their extended Memon family as a part of Zakat, an annual donation of 2.5% of an individual’s earnings.
Suhail Khandwani, Mentor at Memon ID and Vice-President of All India Memon Jamat Federation said, “Like many other business communities such as Bohras and Khojas, Memons do not have a real-time census. There is also a strong urge to have a unique identity number for every Memon to disburse benefits as per actual requirements and have a progress report of the individual to ensure success of the community.”
The Muslim Memon community, which was earlier Hindu Lohanas of Sindh, embraced Islam in the 15th century, and migrated to Kutch, Kathiyawad and Okha in Gujarat. Subsequently, these families spread out to different parts of the country and across the globe. Today, a major chunk of the populace are present in India and Pakistan.
Rubaid (Ali) Bhojani, founder and CEO of Memon ID, said, “Through this health insurance, we can ensure proper medical treatment of all our members by paying a minimal premium in comparison to the huge medical bills we pay under charity every year. This will lower the burden on community’s charity work as well as on the government’s health schemes.”
Community also starts youth volunteering services
Through Memon ID, the community has also started volunteering services by the youth wherein young Memons can utilise their free time to do productive social work for their clique. It also plans helping single mothers to earn by providing them employment opportunities along with a clientele to carry out their business.
