Jan Dhan Yojana

About the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is the NDA government's premier financial inclusion scheme. Under the PMJDY, the government aims to provide basic financial services such as bank accounts and debit cards to all the citizens of India. Introduced to further the National Mission for Financial Inclusion, the PMJDY is meant to be the launch vehicle of economic streamlining and will provide the masses access to a host of financial services including bank deposit accounts, credit, and even insurance. The PMJDY was launched by the NDA government with the motto - "Mera Khata - Bhagya Vidhaata". Securing subsidies, overdraft facilities, and pension schemes for the poorer sections of Indian society are listed among the long term goals of the scheme. The aim is to cover 7.5 crore households (15 crore bank accounts) by the year 2018.

Why is PMJDY a flagship scheme of the NDA government?

On his maiden Independence Day address as the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi had promised financial inclusion for the masses. About 42 percent of the country's population lacks access to the banking system making it susceptible to approach loan sharks and money lenders for loans, fly-by-night or Ponzi scheme operators for deposits, lose interest on savings on idle money, and lack any insurance cover. The PMJDY came up as PM Modi's solution to extend such financial services to the entire country and end an era of what he calls "financial untouchability".

The PMJDY is also meant to become a potent tool to combat corruption of any form in government offices. When the bulk of the Indian populace has a bank account, it facilitates direct bank transfer of any funds due to the people from the government averting the need for a bribe. The PMJDY also neatly ties in with PM Modi's vision of a Digital India - a country where the economy shall grow increasingly cashless.

Features of the PMJDY account

All accounts opened under the PM Jan Dhan Yojana will be zero-balance accounts and shall be linked to RuPay debit cards. For opening these accounts, the prospective account holder need not comply with stringent Know Your Customer (KYC) norms but will only need to provide a photograph and a signature/thumb impression specimen. In a bank account opened under the scheme the total deposits must not exceeding Rs 100000 in a year. The total withdrawals may not be over Rs 10000 a month and the account balance should not exceed Rs 50000. The account shall remain active for a period of 12 month within which the account holder must furnish proof of application for a valid identification document such as an Aadhaar card or a PAN. In such a case the account will be allowed to exist for another year.

The account holders are provided a free accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh as well. All account holders who open accounts before 26 January 2015, will also be provided a life insurance cover amounting to about Rs 30,000. After about 6 months of the account opening, an overdraft facility of about Rs 5000 shall be allowed. The provision of RuPay debit cards shall promote savings, the Finance Ministry believes.

Launch and implementation

The PMJDY was launched on 28 August 2014. The Prime Minister himself flagged off the scheme with an address to the nation. The Chief Ministers of about 20 states and a number of other prominent Union Ministers participated in launch ceremonies in over 76 cities of the country including Mumbai, Vizag, Patna, Bilaspur, Gandhinagar, Dehradun, Guwahati, Muzaffarpur, Panjim, Raipur, Surat, and Port Blair. Prior to the launch, the Prime Minister's Office had sent out about 7.25 lakh e-mails to bankers across the country entreating their cooperation in making the scheme a success. Over 77,862 enrolment camps were set up nationwide to handle the initial spate of account openings. Thereafter the banks took up the account opening process under the directives of the RBI. On the very day of its launch the PM Jan Dhan Yojana set a record with the opening of over 1.5 crore bank accounts nationwide - the largest such exercise undertaken in any country ever on a single day. Within the first 10 days, about 3 crore accounts were opened under the scheme; the next 20 days saw 2 crore more accounts being added to the kitty, according to reports from the Ministry of Finance. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has offered to assist the Indian government in monitoring of the progress made with regard to the PMJDY.

Concerns and controversy

One of the greatest concerns regarding the PM Jan Dhan Yojana has been bypassing the KYC (Know Your Customer) norms that are mandatory for regular savings accounts according to RBI policy. Banks are concerned that multiple accounts may be opened up by the same individual in various banks and thus an account holder may be able to avail of multiple insurance policies due to the lack of valid documentation. If dispensing of insurance amounts is linked to identification documents such as the Aadhaar cards, the account holders who do not have these documents remain left out.

Another major hiccup that could be faced in the execution of the scheme is in the provision of overdraft facilities to account holders. According to the scheme overdraft facility may only be provided to Aadhaar card linked accounts but if this is a requisite it foils the very need of a bank account without identification documents.

Scheme	Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
Start Date	08/28/14
Implementation Period	Phase I - August 2014 to August 2015
	Phase II - August 2015 to 2018
Accounts opened	5.29 crore accounts (3 Oct 2014)
Collection	Rs 3.97 crore (3 Oct 2014)

Pradhan Mantri Jan - Dhan Yojana (Accounts Opened As on 26.11.2014)

S.No	Banks	No Of Accounts (In Lacs)			No Of Rupay Debit Card (In Lacs)	Balance In Accounts(In Lacs)	No Of Accounts With Zero Balance (In Lacs)
		Rural	Urban	Total
1	Public Sector Banks	368.61	309.47	678.08	501.58	525010.68	503.86
2	Regional Rural Banks	122.25	21.75	144	23.14	94503.95	110.69
3	Private Banks	11.63	11.15	22.78	13.08	38390.46	16.02
	Total	502.49	342.37	844.86	537.8	657905.09	630.57

Statewise Account Opening Weekly Statistics as on 26.11.2014

S.No	STATE	RURAL	URBAN	TOTAL	AADHAAR SEEDED	% AADHAAR SEEDED
1	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	21366	7380	28746	5886	20.48%
2	Andhra Pradesh	2130010	1670756	3800766	2503294	65.86%
3	Arunachal Pradesh	36072	8530	44602	1579	3.54%
4	Assam	1907642	627644	2535286	69846	2.75%
5	Bihar	3790989	1527525	5318514	428133	8.05%
6	Chandigarh	20311	124029	144340	80979	56.10%
7	Chattisgarh	1318891	832068	2150959	219363	10.20%
8	Dadra and Nagar Haveli	16476	5102	21578	5824	26.99%
9	Daman and Diu	9777	2862	12639	3712	29.37%
10	Goa	63862	21706	85568	47903	55.98%
11	Gujarat	1731856	1423221	3155077	708125	22.44%
12	Haryana	1319448	1107123	2426571	956530	39.42%
13	Himachal Pradesh	443594	58267	501861	296523	59.08%
14	Jammu and Kashmir	321409	106121	427530	49724	11.63%
15	Jharkhand	1124759	592009	1716768	974219	56.75%
16	Karnataka	2973735	1719424	4693159	2505882	53.39%
17	Kerala	709035	601686	1310721	651633	49.72%
18	Lakshadweep	3783	148	3931	2393	60.88%
19	Madhya Pradesh	2884749	2938801	5823550	1998120	34.31%
20	Maharashtra	2562563	2754709	5317272	3093320	58.17%
21	Manipur	103450	102109	205559	32101	15.62%
22	Meghalaya	61941	32951	94892	1326	1.40%
23	Mizoram	19025	34055	53080	1983	3.74%
24	Nagaland	32447	28724	61171	7171	11.72%
25	National Capital Territory of Delhi	189363	1484272	1673635	916865	54.78%
26	Odisha(Orissa)	1874083	777287	2651370	575889	21.72%
27	Puducherry (Pondicherry)	38015	35663	73678	43144	58.56%
28	Punjab	1807095	1223158	3030253	1643911	54.25%
29	Rajasthan	3362386	2374936	5737322	2229855	38.87%
30	Sikkim	37313	6332	43645	30789	70.54%
31	Tamil Nadu	2294899	1697132	3992031	858990	21.52%
32	Telangana	1735097	1530146	3265243	2353643	72.08%
33	Tripura	150766	69055	219821	113952	51.84%
34	Uttar Pradesh	8242290	4985615	13227905	1420028	10.74%
35	Uttrakhand	931020	485097	1416117	178583	12.61%
36	West Bengal	3997754	1959928	5957682	950525	15.95%
	Total	48267271	32955571	81222842	25961743	31.96%

Last Updated on : December 5, 2014