Jan Dhan Yojana Achievements

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY): Achievements so far

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The National Mission for Financial Inclusion known as Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) recently concluded eight years of successful operation.

Since its commencement, more than 46.25 crore beneficiaries have deposited money through PMJDY, totalling Rs. 1,73,954 crores.

What is Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)?

• The Pradhan Mantri The National Mission for Financial Inclusion is known as Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
• It guarantees cheap access to financial services such as banking, savings, deposit accounts, remittance, credit, insurance, and pension.
• The cornerstone of people-centred economic efforts has been PMJDY.
• All of these programs, including Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), Covid-19 financial aid, PM-KISAN, increased wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), and life and health insurance coverage, begin with the provision of bank accounts for every adult, which PMJDY is almost done with.

Objectives:

• Ensure affordable access to financial products and services.
• Use of technology to increase reach and reduce costs.

Basic principles of the plan:

• Finance for the unbanked: Simple KYC, e-KYC, account opening in camp mode, no balance, and no fees are required for the opening of a basic savings bank deposit (BSBD) account.
• Protecting the unprotected: issuing indigenous debit cards with free accident insurance coverage of Rs. 2 lakhs that can be used for cash withdrawals and payments at merchant locations.
• Filling the funding gap: Other financial products include micro-credit, micro-pension, micro-overdraft, and micro-insurance.

Pillars of the Scheme

• Branch and banking correspondents provide universal access to banking services.
• Basic savings bank accounts come with an Rs. 10,000 overdraft capacity available to all qualified adults.
• Promoting saves, using ATMs, preparing for credit, obtaining insurance and pensions, and using simple mobile phones for banking are all part of the financial literacy program.
• To give banks some protection against defaults, the Credit Guarantee Fund was established.
• Insurance: On accounts opened between August 15, 2014, and January 31, 2015, accident coverage of up to Rs. 1,00,000 and life coverage of Rs. 30,000 are available.
• Plan for pensions in the unorganised sector.

The important strategy used in PMJDY is based on prior knowledge:

• Instead of the previous techniques of opening accounts offline with vendor technology lock-in, accounts are now opened online in the core banking system of banks.
• RuPay debit card interoperability or Aadhaar-enabled payment system interoperability (AePS).
• Business correspondents with a fixed point.
• e-KYC and/or simplified KYC procedures in place of onerous KYC requirements

Achievements of the Scheme

Approach to digital banking:

• In the banks' main banking system, new accounts are opened online.
• Instead of "Every Household," the emphasis is now on "Every Unbanked Adult."

Business correspondents with a fixed point.

• e-KYC or simplified KYC in place of onerous KYC requirements.
• PMJDY Expansion with New Features
• The phrase "Every Household" is replaced with "Every Unbanked Adult."

Insurance for a RuPay Card

• For PMJDY accounts opened after August 28, 2018, the free accidental insurance coverage on RuPay cards rose from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh.
• By using the RuPay debit card or the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System, interoperability is made possible (AePS).

Improved overdraft facilities:

• Overdraft (OD) limit increased from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000, with an additional Rs. 2,000 allowed (without conditions).
• OD's upper age limit has been raised from 60 to 65 years old.

App called Jan Dhan Darshak:

• In order to give citizens a platform for finding banking contact points such as bank branches, ATMs, Bank Mitras, Post Offices, etc. around the nation, the Jan Dhan Darshak App was launched.

Increased Financial Inclusion:

• Within 10 days of the Covid-19-related nationwide lockdown, ex-gratia payments were credited to more than 20 crore women's PMJDY accounts.

• As of August 10, 2022, PMJDY Accounts were 46.25 crore, up from 14.72 crores in March 2015.
• Out of the 46.25 crore PMJDY accounts in existence as of August 22, 37.57 crores (81.2%) are active.
• Zero balance accounts make up just 8.2% of PMJDY accounts.
• In the period of August 22 to August 15, deposits climbed by around 7.60 times while accounts increased by 2.58 times.

The formalization of the financial system

• It gives the poor a way to transfer their savings into the legal system and a way to send money to their families in rural areas, freeing them from the control of predatory money lenders.

Leakage Prevention:

• DBTs through PM Jan Dhan accounts have made sure that each rupee reaches its intended recipient and stop systematic leakage.

• Streamlined DBT transactions
• The qualifying recipients receive their DBT on time thanks to close monitoring to prevent DBT failures in collaboration with the DBT Mission, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), banks, and numerous other Ministries.
• Digital transactions: From 978 crore in FY 2016–17 to 7,195 crore in FY 2021–22, there were more digital transactions overall.
• The overall number of financial transactions using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) surged from 1.79 crores in FY 2016–17 to 4,596 crore in FY21

Financial Inclusion

• The process of ensuring vulnerable groups, such as weaker parts and low-income groups, have inexpensive access to financial services and timely and adequate financing when needed is known as financial inclusion.
• Financial inclusion is a crucial component of the development process in a multiethnic nation like India. Since the country's independence, the joint efforts of succeeding governments, oversight bodies, and civil society have contributed to widening the country's financial inclusion net.
• Since a transaction account enables people to keep money and send and receive payments, having access to one is the first step toward greater financial inclusion.
• An account for transactions acts as a doorway to additional financial services.

Way ahead

• Make an effort to guarantee that PMJDY account holders are covered by microinsurance programs.
• It will be attempted to cover eligible PMJDY account holders under PMJJBY and PMSBY.
• The same has already been stated to banks.
• Promoting the use of digital payments, such as the RuPay debit card, among PMJDY account holders by setting up acceptance infrastructure throughout India
• enhancing account holders' access to microcredit and micro-investments such as flexi-recurring deposits, etc.

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