Bima Bharosa

What is Bima Bharosa?

Bima Bharosa is the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India's central system for insurance complaints. A policyholder or claimant can use it to register a complaint against an insurer, see it routed to the insurer, track its status and, if needed, have it escalated to IRDAI's grievance cell. IRDAI uses the same system to watch how fast and how fairly insurers resolve complaints across the industry. It is the current form of the Integrated Grievance Management System (IGMS), which IRDAI set up in 2010, and the portal still shows "Bima Bharosa (IGMS)" in its notices.

The portal is at bimabharosa.irdai.gov.in.

How Bima Bharosa works

Registering a complaint. The complainant creates a profile on the portal and lodges one or more complaints. Each gets an IRDAI token number, confirmed by email and SMS, which both IRDAI and the insurer use to track it. The complaint flows into the insurer's own grievance system.

Other ways in. Complaints sent by email or letter to IRDAI, or made by phone to IRDAI's grievance call centre, are also captured in the system. As of October 2026 the call centre, called Bima Bharosa Shikayat Nivaran Kendra, uses the toll-free numbers 155255 and 1800 4254 732, and the email address [email protected]. The call centre also explains each insurer's own redressal process and the Insurance Ombudsman route.

Insurer obligations. The Master Circular on Protection of Policyholders' Interests, 2024 requires every insurer to integrate its grievance portal with Bima Bharosa, with real-time mirroring so that its grievance database stays in step with IRDAI's. Insurers must acknowledge a complaint immediately and give a resolution within 14 days, with reasons that refer to the specific policy terms if the complaint is not accepted. They must also have systems that can spot fake or unidentifiable complaints raised by fraudsters.

Who can be complained about. The master circular allows complaints against the insurer, the distribution channel, entities authorised to collect premium, and TPAs.

Escalation. The portal's own process note says that if a complaint is not attended to within 15 days of registration, or the insurer's resolution is not satisfactory, the complainant may go to the Insurance Ombudsman under the Insurance Ombudsman Rules, 2017.

Unclaimed amounts. Bima Bharosa also hosts a search page that links to every insurer's list of unclaimed policy money. A claimant can find an unclaimed amount by matching any two of policy number, PAN, name and date of birth of the policyholder.

Fraud warnings. The portal states that neither IRDAI nor Bima Bharosa ever asks complainants for any payment. Calls, messages or look-alike websites that promise faster claim settlement for a fee, or ask the complainant to scan a QR code to receive money, are scams.

What Bima Bharosa means for distribution

Bima Bharosa makes complaint data visible to the regulator in near real time. That has direct consequences for channels.

• Complaints against intermediaries are recorded too. A complaint can name the agent, bank, broker or other channel that sold the policy. Repeated mis-selling complaints linked to a partner are exactly the pattern IRDAI looks for.
• Resolve at the first level. Most complaints that reach Bima Bharosa started as an unanswered call or email to the insurer or the channel. A channel that logs and escalates service requests the same day keeps complaints off the portal.
• Give the customer the right route. When a customer is unhappy with a claim decision, a good adviser explains the order: insurer's grievance officer first, then Bima Bharosa, then the Ombudsman. Discouraging a complaint is prohibited under the 2024 regulations.
• Warn customers about fake portals. Fraudsters target families with rejected claims. Distributors should tell customers that the official channels are free and never ask for money.
• Track your own complaint ratio. Complaints per thousand policies sold, split by channel, product and region, is a simple monthly measure. Distribution leaders should see it every month, not only at the annual partner review.