The number of bank accounts under the PM Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which completes nine years on Monday, has crossed 50 crore this month with total deposits exceeding ₹2 lakh crore, Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi said on Saturday.
As of August 16, 50.09 crore PMJDY accounts had been opened with total deposits at ₹2,03,505 crore, up from 48.65 crore accounts with deposits of ₹1.98 lakh crore as on March 31. The deposits in these accounts have more than doubled over the past 52 months from ₹96,107 crore in March 2019.
With the average deposit in PMJDY accounts, rising to ₹4,063, the government is now working with banks and line ministries to persuade account holders to opt for micro insurance schemes like PMJJBY (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana) and the accident insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana.
“We don’t want to make these schemes compulsory but are trying the persuasion route, with banks holding financial literacy camps and special drives to make people aware of the benefits,” Mr. Joshi said. “We are also co-ordinating with ministries that have a field-level presence such as anganwadi or Asha workers,” the top official overseeing banking services added.
“We are also examining the use of databases such as the E-Shram portal of the Labour Ministry to identify people who we believe may not be covered,” he said.
Separately, efforts were also underway to improve the access of PMJDY account holders to micro-credit and micro-investment options such as flexible recurring deposits. As balances rise, routing part of the savings into a recurring deposit could help them get better returns, an official pointed out.
The number of zero balance accounts had dropped sharply from 58% in March 2015 to just 8% of total PMJDY accounts, Mr. Joshi said. Women made up 56% of the account holders, and 67% of the accounts were in rural and semi-urban areas.
The use of digital payments through Rupay cards and UPI (Unified Payment Interface) had also shot up among PMJDY account holders and efforts were underway to enhance the acceptance infrastructure for such payments. As of this month, almost 34 crore account holders had been issued Rupay cards.
As many as 32 lakh account holders had availed the overdraft facilities amounting to ₹370 crore. In August 2018, the government had enhanced the overdraft limit from ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 and increased the age limit for the facility from 60 years to 65 years.