PMJDY to make its mark high; World’s largest financial inclusion scheme to reach Rs 1 lakh crores target

 

According to the data released by government the cumulative balance in 35.29 crore accounts under the flagship programme of the Modi government reached Rs 97,665.66 crore as on 3rd of April this year.

 

The scheme is India’s National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services namely remittance, credit, insurance, pension in an affordable manner. The scheme further intends to bring under the purview of banking all citizens of the country, irrespective of their financial status or regional locations.

 

“The total deposits in Jan Dhan accounts stood at Rs 96,107.35 crore as on March 27 and Rs 95,382.14 crore in the week before. Rupay debit cards have been issued to a total of 27.89 crore Jan Dhan account holders”, the government data claimed.

 

“More than half of the Jan Dhan account holders are women, while nearly 59 per cent accounts are from rural and semi-urban areas”, it added further.

 

Four years after its launch, the government enhanced the accident insurance cover under the scheme to Rs 2 lakh from the earlier Rs 1 lakh in 2018. The overdraft limit in Jan Dhan was doubled to Rs 10,000 in September 2018. The government also changed its focus from offering bank to every household to every unbanked adult.

 

Technology meanwhile, has been a key enabler of PMJDY. It was efficiently leveraged to address some of the challenges faced in the previous financial inclusion initiatives.

 

Recognising the achievements made under the PMJDY, the certificate responding positively had claimed that most bank accounts opened in a week as a part of the financial inclusion campaign was 1,80,96,130 and was achieved by India from 23rd to 29th August 2014.