Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) enrolled around 300 million people from the lower-income groups in the banking system in 1 year. Of the almost 32 crore bank accounts opened by all banks under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) scheme, as high as 10.5 crores or a third of them were opened by State bank of India.

The SBI chairman informed that SBI has started to reap profits as a total of Rs 260 billion has been deposited with them under PMJDY so far, with an average of Rs 1800.

Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojana enrolled 300mn people from low-income group in the banking system in 1 year. 32% bank accounts of the total accounts are held by SBI. Total of Rs 260 bn deposited in PMJDY,with an average of Rs1800,it has started to reap profits for SBI: SBI Chairman pic.twitter.com/bTzlQB4pM9 — ANI (@ANI) November 15, 2018

In total public sector banks accounts for 80 per cent of the total accounts open so far. The private sector banks have a dismal contribution in the same.

The reason being SBI offers certain zero balance savings accounts, where average monthly balance (AMB) rule is not applicable. SBI’s zero balance savings account does not require customers to maintain any particular minimum average balance. However, in other accounts, customers failing to meet the AMB requirements in a month have to bear certain penalty charges.

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Jan Dhan Yojana is India’s mission for financial inclusion and last mile connectivity. PM Narendra Modi in August 2014, launched the scheme, just months after assuming office.

The PMJDY was launched with an aim to ensure financial inclusion for the masses, which includes features like deposits, remittance, credit, insurance, and pension. The accounts opened under this scheme don’t need to maintain any minimum balance. The beneficiaries are also provided with an accidental insurance of Rs 1 lakh and life cover of Rs 30,000. An overdraft facility is extended to the customers who successfully operate their accounts for at least six months. Rs 5,000 is the overdraft limit per family.

Moreover to expand the reach of banking services, all of over 6 lakh villages in the country were mapped into 1.59 lakh Sub Service Areas (SSA), with each SSA typically comprising of 1,000 to 1,500 households, and in the 1.26 lakh SSAs that did not have a bank branch, ‘Bank Mitras’ were deployed for branchless banking.

As reported, the success of the Jan Dhan accounts has found a mention in the World Bank’s Global Findex Report, 2017. As per the World Bank, India accounts for 55% of all the new bank accounts opened in the world.

According to the figures, in 2011 a mere 35% of Indian adults had a bank account. This rose to 53% in 2014. Since then the number has increased to about 80% of the total Indian adult population.