On the seventh anniversary of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the Finance Ministry on Saturday revealed that the number of bank accounts has increased to 43 crores with a total deposit over Rs 1.46 lakh crore. On this occasion, the Prime Minister said that this initiative has transformed India’s development trajectory. “Today we mark seven years of #PMJanDhan, an initiative that has forever transformed India’s development trajectory. It has ensured financial inclusion and a life of dignity as well as empowerment for countless Indians. Jan Dhan Yojana has also helped further transparency,” he said. He further applauded the people who have worked hard to turn the scheme into a success.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman underlined the importance of the scheme in a series of tweets. She said that the 7 years of PMJDY have steered a directional as well as transformational change. This has enabled a system that can deliver financial services to the poorest of the poor. “The underlying pillars of PMJDY, namely, Banking the Unbanked, Securing the Unsecured and Funding the Unfunded has made it possible to adopt multi-stakeholders collaborative approach while leveraging technology for serving the unserved and underserved areas as well,” the Finance Minister said.
Here're 10 key highlights of PMJDY:
1. The PMJDY was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2014, and was subsequently launched on 28 August to make an all-inclusive financial scheme.
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2. The aim was to provide easy access to financial services, namely, banking, remittance, credit, insurance, pension in an affordable manner for the citizens of the country.
3. As of August 18, 2021, the number of total PMJDY accounts stood at 43.04 crores, out of which, 36.86 crore banks are operative as of today.
4. Of this, 55.47 percent (23.87 crores) Jan-Dhan account holders are women and 66.69 percent (28.70 crores) holders are in rural and semi-urban areas.
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5. Of the total, 36.86 crore (85.6 percent) accounts with only 8.2 percent PMJDY accounts being zero balance accounts.
6. The total deposit balances under PMJDY Accounts stand at Rs 1.46 lakh crores. Deposits in these have increased about 6.38 times with an increase in accounts 2.4 times between August 2015 and August 21, almost 3 times.
7. Total RuPay cards issued to PMJDY account holders rose to 31.23 crores.
8. A total of Rs 30,945 crore has been credited in accounts of women PMJDY account holders during COVID-19 lockdown under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana.
9. About 5.1 crore PMJDY bank account holders receive Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) from different government sources.
10. For accounts opened after 2018, the free accidental insurance cover on RuPay cards increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.
