The number of bank accounts for the poor under the Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana have crossed the 55 crore mark with “most of these accounts belonging to people who had never even seen the door of a bank”, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday.
In a post on X, the Finance Minister said, “With the scheme completing 10 years and KYC being mandatory for these accounts, I have urged banks to proactively reach out to people and simplify this process. In this regard, starting from July 1, 2025, banks have launched this campaign, under which approximately 1 lakh Gram Panchayats have been covered so far.”
She urged all Jan Dhan account holders to come forward to participate in these camps and complete their KYC process. According to RBI data, 56 per cent of the Jan Dhan accounts belong to women, and the total amount in these deposits has surpassed Rs 2.5 lakh crore as of May 21.
Speaking at a seminar on financial inclusion recently, RBI Deputy Governor M. Rajeshwar Rao said the launch of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is a watershed moment in India. The Jan Dhan Yojana — Aadhaar–Mobile phone, which comprises the ‘JAM Trinity’, has provided a quantum leap in the country’s endeavour to ensure access to banking services for all adults, making it the world’s largest financial inclusion programme.
PMJDY is one of the biggest financial inclusion initiatives in the world, according to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and a target of opening another three 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 the official data.
As many as 66.6 per cent of Jan Dhan accounts have been opened in rural and semi-urban areas, and 29.56 crore belong to women account holders. From MGNREGA 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.
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.
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.
