Dear Readers,

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
has recently been in the news and could be important for your exams.

The PMJDY is fundamentally an
initiative which targets nationwide financial inclusion and intends to cover
rural as well as urban areas by providing basic banking provisions to one and
all. This article will look at its objectives, background, benefits, criteria
and criticism.

Objectives

·
To cover all households in the country with
banking provisions and having a bank account for every household.

·
To facilitate access to need-based credit, remittances,
insurance and pension to weaker and excluded sections, and low income groups.

·
To channel all government benefits (from union/state/local)
to the beneficiary accounts and implement the Direct Benefits Transfer scheme
of central government.

·
To provide two accounts to 7.5 crore identified households
by August 2018.

Background – What is PMJDY?

·
Launched on 15th August 2014 by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, the PMJDY is the government’s national mission towards
financial inclusion.

·
Mr. Modi called the occasion a festival to
celebrate the liberation of the poor from a poisonous cycle.

·
Under PMJDY, any citizen of India who is above
the age of 10 years and does not have a bank account can open one with zero
balance.

·
The account can be opened in any bank branch or
Business Correspondent (Bank Mitr) branch, specially designed for opening the
accounts under this program.

·
The account holders under this scheme will be
provided with a RuPay debit card, which can be used at any ATM and several
retail outlets across the nation for making purchase transactions.

·
Earlier the government had launched a financial
inclusion plan, called Swabhimaan, which only targeted villages with
populations of more than 2000. Under PMJDY, however, the entire country will be
covered.

·
RBI has started a Basic Savings Bank Deposit
Account (BSBDA) which will have no minimum balance requirements. It will also
have the facility of ATM or ATM-cum-Debit card without any extra cost.

·
Maximum four withdrawals including ATM
withdrawals can be made in this account, but there is no such limit for making
deposits. This will further reflect Prime Minister’s mission of promoting
savings.

Benefits of PMJDY

·
By providing banking opportunity and insurance
coverage to all, including the poor, the PMJDY will revolutionize the
conventional banking framework.

·
The Prime Minister initiated this to help the
poor become more financially confident by giving every citizen the right to
have their own bank account.

·
The account holders would get insurance coverage
worth ₹30,000 if they comply with certain specifications of the scheme like
opening the bank account before 26th January 2015. A RuPay debit
card will also be provided.

·
In case of death due to any cause, an additional
accidental insurance coverage of over ₹200,000 will also be provided as a part
of the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Beema Yojana (PMJJBY). Under this, people
aged between 18 and 50 years with bank accounts will have to pay an annual
premium of ₹330 excluding service tax.

·
Another scheme, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima
Yojana (PMSBY), will be merged with the PMJDY. This will be available to people
aged between 18 and 70 years with bank accounts, and will require an annual
premium of ₹12 excluding service tax. In case of accidental death or full
disability, the nominee will be paid ₹2 lakh and ₹1 lakh in case of partial
disability.

·
The account holder can take a loan benefit of up
to Rs. 5000 from the bank after six months from opening the account. This
seemingly insignificant amount will be of great help to people who are below
poverty line.

·
Even though smartphones have now become common
for making bank transactions, the PMJDY will let its account holders avail the
same facilities of transferring funds and checking balance on a normal cell
phone. This will make mobile banking more economical for the general public.

How to Open an Account under PMJDY?

·
Just the Aadhaar Card or Number will suffice. In
case the address is changed, a self-certification of current address would also
be required.

·
If Aadhaar Card is not available then any one of
the Officially Valid Documents (OVD) – Voter ID Card, Driving License, PAN
Card, Passport or NREGA Card – will have to be produced.

·
If one does not have any of the OVDs, one can
open “Small Accounts” with the banks. This small account can be opened by
submitting a self-attested photograph and a signature or thumb print in the
presence of an official of the bank.

·
These small accounts will have restrictions
regarding the aggregate credit (not more than Rupees one lac per year), aggregate
withdrawals (not more than Rupees 10,000 per month) and balance in the accounts
(not more than Rupees 50,000 at any point of time).

·
These accounts will be valid normally only for
twelve months. Thereafter, such accounts would be allowed to continue for
another twelve months only if the account holder provides a document showing that
s/he has applied for any of the OVDs, within a year of opening the small
account.

Achievements of the PMJDY

·
The Jan Dhan Yojana has been featured in the
Guinness Book of World Records for opening 1.8 crore (1,80,96,130) accounts by
banks in one week – 23 to 29 August 2014.

·
Against the target of 7.5 crore bank accounts by
26th January 2015, the PMJDY has recorded 11.5 crore bank accounts
on 17th January 2015.

·
As on October 7, 2015, the deposits in the
accounts under PMJDY have reached a total of ₹25,146.97 crore.

·
The
PMJDY accounts with balances have now surpassed 60 per cent and the accounts
with zero balance have reduced to less than 40 per cent (37.5%).

·
The major banks that have contributed to this
accomplishment are – State Bank of India (₹2,989.18 crore), United Bank of
India (₹2,644.77 crore), Oriental Bank of Commerce (₹2,104.70 crore), Bank of
Baroda (₹1,771.42 crore) and UCO Bank (₹1,178.17 crore).

·
According to the official website of PMJDY, 19.02
crore bank accounts have been opened, in which 11.58 crore accounts are in
rural India and the remaining 7.45 crore are in urban areas.

·
A total of 16.38 crore RuPay cards have been
issued till now.

·
The Aadhaar card has been used to open 41.82% of
accounts under PMJDY.

·
More than 1.26 lakh Bank Mitras have been
established with online devices aimed at KYC (Know Your Customer) strategies
and also have interoperable payment facility.

·
From September 2014 to April 2015, 1,47,418
students in 2,567 schools and colleges were trained on financial literacy. 1,31,012
Mega Financial Literacy camps were also held by banks under PMJDY, with ample
support from 89,876 Financial Literacy counters to spread awareness.

·
Over 10 lakh accounts have been deemed eligible
for the Overdraft facility, and 1,64,962 accounts have availed it till now.

·
847 Claims of Life cover of ₹300,000 and 389
Claims of Accident Insurance cover of ₹1 lakh have been successfully paid by
the sub-schemes of PMJDY, like PMJJBY and PMSBY.

·
As on August 22, 2015, 8.17 crore beneficiaries
have been enrolled under the PMSBY and 2.76 crore have been enrolled under
PMJJBY and 6.83 lakh account holders have been enrolled under Atal Pension
Yojana.

These are the primary points of
the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). If you can understand these well,
you will be able to attempt the questions pertaining to it with great ease.

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