New Delhi, July 25 (IANS) As Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday became India’s second longest serving Premier, a major achievement during his tenure has been the staggering number of 55.44 crore Jan Dhan accounts opened for the country’s poor with the total amount in these deposits surpassing Rs 2.5 lakh crore this year, according to RBI data.

The Jan Dhan accounts, which led to financial inclusion on an unprecedented scale, have also led to the empowerment of women, who hold 56 per cent of these accounts.

“The launch of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) became the watershed moment in India’s financial inclusion. The Jan Dhan Yojana-Aadhar-Mobile, which constitutes the JAM trinity, provided a quantum leap in our endeavour to ensure access to banking services for all adults, making it the world’s largest financial inclusion program,” RBI Deputy Governor M. Rajeshwar Rao had said.

The JAM Trinity has given a boost to the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) programme and expanded its coverage from partial to ubiquitous. From MNREGA salaries to Ujjwala scheme subsidy and providing money to common people during Covid, this scheme has played a major role, according to a Finance Ministry statement.

The provision of universal access to bank accounts has not only increased the potential reach of other financial services but has also enabled frictionless delivery of welfare programmes to the targeted segment.

Today, 99.95 per cent of all inhabited villages have access to banking facilities within a 5-km radius through banking touch points (including bank branches, ATMs, banking correspondents (BCs), and Indian Post Payment Banks), the statement said.

The PMJDY is one of the biggest financial inclusion initiatives in the world, according to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and a target of opening another 3 crore such accounts has been fixed for the current year.

The average bank balance per account in March 2015 was Rs 1,065, which has now increased to Rs 4,352. Around 80 per cent of the accounts are active, according to Finance Ministry data.

As many as 66.6 per cent of Jan Dhan accounts are opened in rural and semi-urban areas, and 29.56 crore belong to women account holders.

When the Modi government first came to power 11 years ago, it had set a target of providing financial and banking services to every citizen. For this, zero balance bank accounts were opened in the banks of the poorest of the poor under ‘Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojana’ launched on August 28, 2014.

–IANS

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