In a possible validation of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), reports have claimed that the total deposits in the the Jan Dhan accounts have exceeded Rs 80,000 crores. As per data from the Finance Ministry, the deposits stood at Rs 80,545.70 crores on 11 April 2018.
The PMJDY was launched in August, 2014 with an aim to ensure financial inclusion for the masses, which includes features like deposits, remittance, credit, insurance, and pension. The accounts opened under this scheme don’t need to maintain any minimum balance, and the beneficiaries are also provided an accidental insurance of Rs 1 lakh and life cover of Rs 30,000. Successfully operating the account for 6 months results in an overdraft facility being extended to the customer. This overdraft is limited to Rs 5,000 per family.
As reported now, the success of the Jan Dhan accounts have found a mention in the World Bank’s Global Findex Report, 2017 which was released last week. As per the World Bank, India accounts for 55% of all the new bank accounts opened in the world.
The deposits in these bank accounts saw a huge spike post demonetisation in November 2017, with the deposited cash rising from about Rs 45,300 crore to Rs 74,000 crore within a month. As per data made available by AISECT, the deposits in Jan Dhan accounts operating out of its banking kiosks rose from an average of Rs 480 per account to Rs 1,095 following demonetisation.
In all about 31.4 crore Jan Dhan accounts are in existence as of April 2018, which saw a rise of about 5.9 crore accounts post demonetisation. The intensity of this scheme’s implementation can be gauged by the fact that a whopping 1.8 crore of such accounts were opened in just one week – back in 2014.
Figure wise, in 2011 a mere 35% of Indian adults had a bank account which rose to 53% in 2014. Since then the number has increased to about 80% of the total Indian adult population.
