National: Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is one of the biggest financial inclusion initiatives in the world. The PMJDY was announced by PM Narendra Modi on August 15, 2014. The official launch of the program was on August 28, 2014. Modi described the launching as a festival to celebrate the liberation of the poor from the vicious cycle.
On August 28, 2020, the PMJDY program has completed six successful years of implementation.
In the event of 6Th Anniversary of PMJDY, the Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, also stated its importance.
“The PMJDY is the foundation for the government’s people-centric economic initiatives.”
Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Anurag Thakur also expressed his thoughts for PMJDY.
“PMJDY has brought the unbanked into the banking system. The financial architecture of India is expanding. It has also brought financial inclusion to over 40 Crore account holders.”
The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is a National Mission. It is for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services. Services include Bank Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension. The main objective of PMJDY is to ensure access to financial products and services. Use of technology to lower cost and widen the reach.
The launching of the PMJDY scheme was on the basis of 6 pillars. They are:
Universal access to banking services.
Basic savings bank accounts with an overdraft facility of Rs. 10,000.
Financial Literacy Program. Promoting savings, use of ATMs, using basic mobile phones for banking.
Creation of Credit Guarantee Fund. This is to provide banks some guarantee against defaults.
Insurance cover up of Rs. 1,00,000 on accident. Also, life cover of Rs. 30,000. This benefit is only for those who opened an account of their account between August 15, 2014, to August 31, 2015.
Also, the Pension Scheme for the Unorganized sector.
On August 19, 2020, the total count of the PMJDY account was 40.35 Crore. The percentage of rural PMJDY accounts is 63.6 percent. Also, the total percentage of Women in the PMJDY Scheme is 55.2 percent.
During the first year of the scheme, a total of 17.90 Crore accounts were opened.
A PMJDY account becomes inoperative if there are no transactions in the account for two years. This rule is according to the RBI guidelines. In August 2020, out of the 40.35 Crore accounts, 34.81 Crore is operative.
The total deposit under PMJDY accounts stands at Rs. 1.31 Lakh Crore. The average deposit per account is Rs. 3239. The RuPay Cards were also issued to PMJDY account holders. A total of 29.75 Crore RuPay cards have been issued to PMJDY accounts holders. The total number of RuPay cards and their usage is increasing over time.
On March 26, 2020, the Finance Minister made the announcement of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP). The scheme is under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana. The scheme is only for the PMJDY women beneficiaries. Under the scheme, an amount of Rs. 500 per month was given to the women account holders. The amount of money was given for three months (April 2020 to June 2020). A total of Rs. 30,705 Crore has been credited in accounts during April-June, 2020.