Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY): An Initiative towards Financial Inclusion in India

It is indeed a matter of serious concern that despite tremendous growth of banking sector in India—both horizontally and vertically, a large section of Indian population continues to remain unbanked. To mitigate these long drawn financial sufferings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a new scheme in his Independence Day speech on 15th Aug 2014 and called it as the National Mission on Financial Inclusion (NMFI) for weaker section and low-income groups. The prime objective of the PMJDY is to ensure financial inclusion of the poor and rural population giving them dignity, financial freedom and financial stability. Under this scheme, every household with a bank account gets access to banking and credit facilities. This scheme will help the poor to come out of the grip of moneylenders, manage emerging financial needs, and get benefits from a range of financial services. Initially, every account holder gets a RuPay Debit Card with a Rs. 1 lakh accident insurance cover. It is found that more than 8.32 crore bank accounts were opened out of which 74.27% accounts were zero balance. The performance of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) is at the top with more than 80% contribution in PMJDY followed by Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Private Banks (PBs) with 17% and 3% respectively. It is also found that the various issues and challenges in effective implementation of scheme. The present paper endeavors to study the recent trends in financial inclusion in India with special reference to Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), highlighting its key areas and suggests strategies to ensure maximum financial inclusion for the underprivileged and unbanked areas.