New Delhi, Aug 30 - What do fitness chains and life or health insurance companies in India have in common? The answer: Consumer apathy.

Wellness companies and life insurers had started wooing the Indian middle class thanks to its rising income levels and dramatic changes. But much to their surprise, they have realised that Indian consumers don't always care enough about being fit or ensuring contingency funds for the future.

'The overall attitude towards buying life insurance products is one of postponement,' said ICICI Prudential Life executive vice president Anita Pai. 'It just doesn't feature in people's priority list,' Pai told IANS.

Procrastination and apathy seem to add to the general unawareness about health issues, the stakeholders said, adding this makes the task of getting new customers that much more difficult for insurance companies and health chains.

Little wonder, available statistics suggest that while life insurance penetration in India is about 4.4 percent, those who have insured their health is around 1.2 percent

This apart, the general insurance penetration in India is also rather low in India at 0.6 percent, against the world average of 2.14 percent.

Fitness centres and gymnasiums, accordingly, form under 20 percent of the $2 billion wellness industry in India, which Ernst and Young estimates is growing at 30-35 percent per annum.

'Health doesn't command that value here,' said Vikram Aditya Bhatia, managing director of Fitness First - an international chain of gyms. 'The attitude is - 'let's postpone. Let's procrastinate. It won't happen to me right now. When it happens, I'll deal with it',' Bhatia added.

What stands out in stark contrast is that India figures among the countries that witness highest incidence of road accidents. It also has an increasing population of diabetics and those suffering from cardiovascular diseases.