Challenges Facing the Insurance of Rural Handmade Carpet Weavers in Zanjan County

Handmade carpet weaving has been one of the important off-farm activities and livelihood sources of Iranian rural households. The government has tried to cover self-employed and home-based carpet weavers under the insurance policy to support them and their households, in facing problems such as death, work related casualties and disablement, as well as their retirement. However, a high proportion of these producers have not covered by this insurance. The purpose of this paper is to analyze challenges facing these producers to adopt and use "the carpet weaving insurance". The study was conducted based on a mix methodology of case study and survey in 23 villages located in Zanjan County in the north west of Iran. In the case study design, research techniques such as document analysis, focus groups and semi-structured interviews were utilized through the participation of 90 rural handmade silk carpet weavers and carpet market actors. In the survey, a sample of 265 rural handmade silk carpet weaver households were randomly selected for structured interviews. The results showed that 85.3% of the households and the weavers were not covered by the carpet insurance. The proportion of weavers being covered by the insurance was different in terms of the location of their villages. The distance between the rural areas and Zanjan City, the center of the province, had a negative impact on introducing and adopting the insurance. In isolated rural areas, the dependency of rural household's livelihoods on carpet production is much higher than other rural areas, but this isolation has affected them by reducing their insurance coverage. The rural carpet weavers have three important challenges in order to be covered by the insurance.