Jan Dhan Yojana Completes 6 Years; Benefits 40.3 Crore People

On Friday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that more than 40.35 crore people benefited from the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) which was launched six years ago as a national mission for financial inclusion.

The Jan Dhan Yojana, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address in 2014, was launched on August 28, in the same year.

"The PMJDY has been the foundation stone for the Modi government's people-centric economic initiatives," Sitharaman said on the sixth anniversary of the scheme.

"Whether it is direct benefit transfers, COVID-19 financial assistance, PM-KISAN, increased wages under MGNREGA, life and health insurance cover, the first step was to provide every adult with a bank account, which PMJDY has nearly completed," she added.

Financial Inclusion is a national priority of the government as it is an enabler for inclusive growth, the finance ministry statement said.

It is important as it provides an avenue to the poor for bringing their savings into the formal financial system, an avenue to remit money to their families in villages besides taking them out of the clutches of the usurious money lenders, it said.

Total deposit balances under PMJDY Accounts was at Rs 1.31 lakh crore and the average deposit per account stood at Rs 3,239.

It is a national mission for financial inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely, savings and deposit accounts, remittance, credit, insurance, pension in an affordable manner.