The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), an Financial inclusion program introduced by the Government of India and is open to all the Indian Citizens, aims to afford the access to financial services such as Bank accounts, remittances, insurance, credit and pensions. The Scheme was Launched on Aug 24,2014 with the Focus to Provide universal access to banking facilities to all the people in the country. Any Individual above the age of 10 years are eligible for this scheme. More than 40 crore Bank Accounts have been open under the Government’s flagship financial inclusion which was launched about six years ago in August 2014 by the modi government. As per the Latest Reports, there are about 40.05 crore beneficiaries of this scheme and the Deposits in Jan Dhan Bank Accounts are in excess of ₹1.30 lakh crore rupees.
PMJDY has provided a Platform for three social security schemes :
1. Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana(PMJBY)
2. Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana(PMSBY)
3. Atal Pension Yojana (APY) and
4. Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY).
The Accounts opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan are Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) accounts with additional features of RuPay Scheme Debit Cards and overdraft.
There is no requirement of maintaining minimum balance in Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) Accounts of PMJDY. Following the success of the scheme, the Government also enhanced the accident insurance cover to ₹2 lakh from ₹1 lakh for new accounts opened after August 28,2018. The overdraft limit facility was also doubled to ₹10,000 from the month of August 2018.
Over 50 percent of the Jan Dhan Account scheme beneficiaries are women and the Government as a part of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan(PMGK), credited ₹1500 per account in three equal Monthly installments to support the poor and needy people during the covid-19 crisis situation. The government recently on March 26,2020 announced an ex-gratia payment of ₹500 to be credited to women Jan Dhan Account Holders for three months starting from the month of April. The main moto of the government is to focus on Bank accounts from “every household” to “every unbanked adult.”
The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana also envisages channelling all Government benefits to the beneficiary Accounts and Pushing the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme of the central Government.
