The Supreme Court of India has instructed the IRDAI to gather statistics on life insurance policies issued to people with autism, cerebral palsy, and Asperger’s syndrome, highlighting ongoing concerns over the practical accessibility of protections for neurodivergent individuals.
The Supreme Court of India has asked the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India to compile figures on how many life insurance policies have actually been issued to people with autism, cerebral palsy and Asperger’s syndrome, after hearing a petition that argues existing protections for neurodivergent people remain too weak to matter in practice. The case, brought by the NGO Action for Autism, seeks wider reforms for people with autism, dyslexia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, according to Bar and Bench.
During the hearing, counsel for IRDAI told the court that two circulars dealing with insurance for people with autism had already been issued and filed with the regulator’s counter-affidavit. But the bench pressed for evidence that those measures were translating into real coverage, asking whether insurers were in fact selling policies to the people they were meant to protect, Bar and Bench reported.
The court then directed IRDAI to seek instructions and place on record data covering policies issued by both public-sector and private-sector insurers, signalling that formal guidance alone may not be enough unless it leads to access in the market. The petition has put a spotlight on a wider question often raised in disability-rights cases: whether regulatory safeguards exist only on paper or are being implemented in a way that changes day-to-day outcomes for affected families.
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