Eleven years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) with a vision of ensuring financial inclusion for every Indian household. Today, PMJDY has transformed the landscape by bringing banking, credit, insurance and pension within everyone’s reach. With over 56 crore Jan Dhan accounts, PMJDY has empowered citizens with financial dignity. Notably, over 56 per cent of these accounts are held by women and two out of every three accounts are in rural and semi-urban areas.

Beyond numbers, Jan Dhan has delivered government benefits directly to citizens, removed fake beneficiaries, freed the poor from middlemen, empowered women with financial independence and connected villages to the economic mainstream.

The success of PMJDY is a story of trust, empowerment and dignity. Modi’s vision of universal financial inclusion is fast becoming a reality. PMJDY, which is the world’s largest financial inclusion scheme, was launched on August 28, 2014, with the motive of ‘Banking the Unbanked’, with 179 million accounts being opened in the first year itself. PMJDY’s objective has been to ensure accessibility to various financial services like availability of basic savings bank account, need-based credit, remittance facility, insurance, micro-credit and pension to excluded sections, that is, weaker sections and low-income groups. Operative accounts as a percentage of the total accounts stand at well over a healthy 81 per cent.

Average deposits rose to Rs 4,076 in August 2023 from Rs 3,398 in 2021. The average deposit per account is up significantly from Rs 1,279 in August 2015. The increase in average deposit is an indication of increased usage of accounts. PMJDY has expanded its coverage to roughly 67 per cent of the rural and semi-urban areas. Over 57 million PMJDY account holders receive direct benefit transfer (DBT) from the Modi government. Barely less than 6 per cent of the accounts have zero balance.

The public sector banks are the key drivers for the scheme, holding well over Rs 2.5 lakh crore with them as deposits, followed by Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and private sector banks holding the remaining deposits. The digital revolution under the Modi government and financial inclusion via PMJDY have been feeding off each other in a seamless manner. The Modi government has given a further fillip to PMJDY by extending the benefits of its flagship insurance schemes, PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and PM Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) to PMJDY account holders and thereby improving access of these account holders to micro-credit and micro investment plans such as flexi-recurring deposits.

PMJDY is a........

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