In the last decade, 53.13 crore Jan Dhan accounts were opened for the economically deprived sections, with deposits aggregating to Rs 2.3 lakh crore, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday. Speaking ahead of the 10th anniversary of the PMJDY, Sitharaman said the scheme is one of the largest financial inclusion programs in the world. She also announced the target to open an additional 3 crore PMJDY accounts in the current financial year.
Sitharaman added that the average balance per account has also increased substantially from Rs 1,065 in March 2015 to Rs 4,352 as of today, of which around 80 percent of these accounts are operative. She said, "66.6 percent of total accounts have been opened in rural and semi-urban areas and 29.56 crore accounts are held by women," indicating large-scale operability of PMJDY accounts. She maintained that a very small percentage of accounts has zero balance-only 8.4 percent-and there has been no requirement for maintaining minimum balance in the accounts under the scheme.
Announced on August 28, 2014, the PMJDY aims to inculcate financial and banking services for every individual, particularly zero-balance accounts for the underprivileged. The scheme has been used as a major tool for disbursing various benefits, from salaries under MNREGA to subsidies under the Ujjwala scheme and COVID-19 pandemic-related support. It has been one of the key drivers for the success of the Modi government. A decade later, billions of rupees have been deposited through these accounts by ordinary citizens.
As of August 14, 2024, India has over 173 crore operative CASA-current and savings-accounts, with more than 53 crore of those being PMJDY accounts. Sitharaman also spoke about the role of new technologies such as e-KYC and video KYC in facilitating easy onboarding for an account without any physical visit to the branch.
Govt feels that it has covered more or less the adult population with bank accounts and is now reaching the unbanked. JAM Trinity, Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile, has helped a great deal in expanding the reach of DBT. In fact, the PMJDY scheme has been able to achieve considerable success in terms of its impact on banking access, especially in rural and semi-urban areas. Presently, 99.95 percent of the villages have banking facilities within a radius of 5 km including bank branches, ATMs, banking correspondents, and Indian Post Payment Banks.
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