Financial Inclusion through Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) Scheme

Abstract

Even after 47 years of nationalization of banks in 1969, a large section of country’s population and most of the rural areas still remains unbanked leading to financial instability. To enhancing financial inclusion status and overcome this issues the government of India announced innovative scheme namely PMJDY. Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is a National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely, Banking, Savings & Deposit Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension in an affordable manner. Financial inclusion is an innovative concept which enables the alternative techniques to promote the banking habits and acts as enabler in reducing the poverty and the launch of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) by Government of India is in that direction. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of this scheme at the historic Red Fort on the occasion of India’s Independence Day 2014. The scheme is not only limited to opening of a bank account but has other benefits with it viz. zero balance bank account with RuPay debit card, in addition to accidental insurance cover of 1 lakh, those who open accounts by January 26, 2015 over and above the 1 lakh accident, they will be given life insurance cover of 30,000, etc. The present paper endeavor to study the need of financial inclusion in india, pillars of the PMJDY and current status and progess of this scheme.