Explaining the rationale behind the move, Krishna Srivastava, vice-president, marketing, said that masons, despite their indispensable role in the construction activities, are currently being denied any importance but for the occasional dinner meetings and gifts in the form of gold coins etc. Zuari Cement will now try to address this issue.

The company plans to provide insurance cover to about 10,000 masons initially in the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala-its biggest markets. It is in the process of tying up with United India Insurance for the insurance cover and the premium is expected to be in the range of about Rs 25 lakh per year. The company, at a later date, plans to include life insurance too under the scheme.``Giving insurance cover is our way of saying we care for them and they are important to us,'' he added.

The idea was born out of a detailed research conducted by the company which clearly brought out that masons were an unhappy lot and accident rates were very high in their profession, Srivastava said.

Zuari has charted a three-fold strategy to identify the right masons for giving them the cover. As a first step, it will be soliciting the help of Zuari Cement dealers who are in regular touch with masons on a day-to-day basis.

The company also expects this initiative to give a feeling of importance and involvement to the dealers-apart from helping their business. Moreover, by involving the dealers, the company feels more confident that only genuine and deserving masons will be nominated. The dealers will continue to play a crucial role as they would be the intermediary who will forward the claims of the masons to the company in the event of an accident, which will in turn will be sent by Zuari to theinsurance company.

Plans have also been drawn up to reach out to the masons through hoardings and by way of advertisement campaigns on television.

The database on masons that the company will end up creating through this exercise is also likely to be put to good use.

In due course, Zuari intends sending direct mailers to the masons in a bid to establish a direct relationship. It is also proposing to distribute special cards to them which will enable them to get items which are of use to them such as cycles, torch lights etc at a discounted rate. For the purpose the company is already talking to various manufacturers to get them to supply products at a lower rates.