Hello Aspirants!
In today’s blog we will talk about Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme which recently completed its 7 years. Prime minister Narendra Modi launched the scheme in 2014 with an aim to improve financial inclusion in the country through effective use of technology.
Read the blog to know all about the scheme, its objectives, achievements and other features.
About PMJDY
The Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is the National Mission for Financial Inclusion, which aims to provide affordable access to financial services such as basic savings and deposit accounts, remittance, credit, insurance, and pension.
It is carried out by the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Financial Services.
Objective of the scheme
The goal is to provide access to various financial services to the excluded groups, i.e. the weaker sections and low income groups, at an affordable cost using technology.
Six pillars of the scheme
- Universal access to banking services-
Accounts opened are online accounts in a bank’s core banking system. The emphasis has shifted from ‘Every Household’ to ‘Every Unbanked Adult.’
- Every household will receive a basic savings bank account with an overdraft (OD) facility of Rs. 10,000/-.
- Financial Literacy Program– Encourages savings, the use of ATMs, the use of basic mobile phones for banking, etc. Interoperability via the RuPay debit card or the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS).
- Establishment of a Credit Guarantee Fund – To provide banks with some protection against defaults.
- Insurance – For PMJDY accounts opened after August 2018, the free accidental insurance cover on RuPay cards has been increased from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh.
- Pension Plan for the Unorganized Sector
Achievements
Accounts
- PMJDY Accounts have increased from 14.72 crore in March 2015 to 43.04 crore as of 18-08-2021.
- 55% Jan-Dhan account holders are women and 67% Jan Dhan accounts are in rural and semi-urban areas.
- 36.86 crore (86 percent) of the total 43.04 crore PMJDY accounts are operational as of August 2021. Only 8.2% of PMJDY accounts are zero balance accounts.
Deposits
- Total deposit balances under PMJDY Accounts stand at Rs. 1,46,230 crore as of August’21. Average deposit per account is Rs. 3,398.
- An increase in average deposit is another indicator of increased account usage and the instillation of a saving habit among account holders.
Jan Dhan Darshak App
- This app is also used to identify villages that do not have any banking touchpoints within 5 kilometres, such as bank branches, ATMs, Bank Mitras, Post Offices, and so on. As a result of the efforts, the number of such villages has decreased significantly.
Rupay Usage
- Rupay Card is a domestic Indian card created and launched by NPCI in 2012. It was introduced in the Indian payment system to reduce the monopoly of foreign gateways such as Visa and MasterCard because these are foreign or American companies with high commissions, resulting in a high transaction cost.
- The total number of RuPay cards issued to PMJDY account holders is 31.23 crore.
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP)
- During the Covid lockdown, a total of Rs. 30,945 crore was credited to the accounts of women PMJDY account holders under PMGKP.
- The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package is a comprehensive relief package worth Rs 1.70 Lakh Crore for the poor to assist them in fighting the CoronaVirus. This was announced in March 2020, with the goal of reaching out to the poor with food and money, so that they do not face difficulties purchasing essential supplies and meeting basic needs. The scheme has been extended from July 2021 to November 2021.
Smooth DBT transactions
- The Government provided direct benefit transfer (DBT) to approximately 5 crore PMJDY account holders through various schemes.
Impact
Formalized financial system
It gives the poor a way to get their savings into the formal financial system, a way to send money to their families in villages, and it keeps them out of the clutches of usurious money lenders.
Increased Financial Inclusion
PMJDY has served as the core element for people-centered economic initiatives. Whether it is DBT, Covid-19 financial assistance, PM-KISAN, increased wages under MGNREGA, or life and health insurance coverage, the first step in all of these initiatives is to provide every adult with a bank account, which PMJDY is almost finished with.
Leakage Prevention
DBTs delivered via PM Jan Dhan accounts ensure that every rupee reaches its intended beneficiary while also preventing systemic leakage.
Efforts must be made to ensure that PMJDY account holders are covered by microinsurance schemes. PMJDY account holders who are eligible will be sought to be covered under PMJJBY and PMSBY.
digital payments must be promoted, including the use of RuPay debit cards, among PMJDY account holders through the establishment of acceptance infrastructure throughout India.
With this we come to the end of this blog. We covered all the major points about the PMJDY and its achievements.
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