PRADHAN MANTRI JAN DHAN YOJANA (PMJDY)

YEAR THE POLICY WAS INTRODUCED:  August.28th.2014.‍

REASON FOR WHY THE POLICY WAS INTRODUCED:

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana which was introduced by the government of India nationwide in August 2014 with a slogan "Mera Khata, Bhagya Vidhatha" which signifies that "My account gets me all the good prosperity". The authority of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana lies with the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, under this scheme nearly 15 million bank accounts were opened on the day of inauguration.

This programme deals with financial inclusion and is open to all Indian citizens (those children who are minor or below the age of 10 can manage the bank account with the help of a guardian). The main aim of this policy is to provide access to financial services such as banking, remittance, insurance, savings and deposits accounts, and pensions in a budgeted way.

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme was meant primarily for those who do not have a savings bank account.

The main target of this financial inclusion is towards conveying people about those financial services which are available at a very low cost and helps the low-income segments of the society. This scheme is like a leading edge to reduce poverty of those who are economically backward by promoting bank activities. They also aimed at covering both the rural and the urban areas, i.e., focusing on the household of both urban and rural. They wanted to decrease the corruption in the subsidy schemes of the government. And also, to encourage digital India. We can also tell that it was a step towards a cashless economy.

WHAT IS THERE IN THIS POLICY?

Earlier in the year 2011, there was a scheme introduced known as Swabhimaan which covered almost 74,000 villages having a population of more than 2,000 with banking facilities successfully. But the drawback of this scheme was that it did not reach those who are financially excluded and it had a very limited impact.

But later Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana considering the Swabhimaan scheme started a comprehensive approach towards financial inclusion in India.

This scheme insists on opening an account, and the same account which is opened is seeded with credit, insurance, direct benefit transfer, and pension. And we can hence say that these accounts are very much active. And each of them is provided with a RuPay debit card and the mobile banking facilities are available to all the users. The main attention is provided to financial literacy and especially in rural branches. Each of the individuals will have a financial and credit history on the records maintained by the government of India. Through this scheme, people can access loans in a very easy manner from a financial institution instead of applying for those loans with a high rate of interest.

The target was fixed to 75 million households to enrol in this scheme and to open the bank accounts, and the target was achieved and also the achieved target was more than the set target within 2018.August.

The scheme also provides financial awareness and financial education to the people. The scheme to create financial awareness and to provide financial education started many centres of financial literacy skilling across India. And this scheme covers 1.26 lakh Bank Mitras. These bank Mitras refer to those branchless which provide banking services in sub-service areas or those areas where there are no banking facilities.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme performed very well in a very short duration of time, and during this period it has faced numerous challenges to sustain for a very long duration of time. And to sustain for a long period was one of the major challenges. There are some more challenges like keeping the accounts "live", to create awareness among the people in the society about the financial inclusion in the PMJDY scheme and to cover all the different types of people and in all the areas of the country and to identify different and appropriate technology to be implemented on the mobile financial inclusion.

The primary objective of this policy is to evaluate the growth of Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana after its launch. This study is also based on secondary data and is descriptive.

CONCLUSION:

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is one among the National policies which have been enforced strictly. And focuses on rural and urban areas rather than focusing those villages in rural areas. And has achieved the target by opening several bank accounts. The scheme is performing well in terms of account opening, financial literacy skills. Now the task is to sustain the performance for a longer duration of time. We can also conclude by this that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme is a necessary scheme which ensures the growth of the nation inclusively.