“Don’t have enough money to meet minimum balance requirements”, was the most cited main reason by unbanked Americans, still around 5.4% of households, FDIC reported last month. In contrast, the visionary step of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to have no such requirement for Jan Dhan Yojana has brought in a silent revolution. More than entire population of the USA has now obtained access to the banking system in India since the inception of PMJDY.
Atmanirbhar Bharat is turning into a mass movement similar to Namak Satyagrah. Access to financial services to the last person of the society – the poorest of poor, by PMJDY led interventions is perhaps the biggest enabler. This national mission for financial inclusion ensures access to financial services, namely, banking – savings and deposit accounts, insurance, remittance, credit, pension in an affordable manner. It is worthwhile to note the pace at which unbanked in India are catching up to the best in the world. The FDIC survey, started in 2009 in the aftermath of GFC, has just now begun to ask questions on bill payment services and use of a website for ETP to send or receive money domestically – which we know is almost ubiquitous now in India.
Indeed, sorting out reported accessing problems of Jan Dhan accounts and Aadhaar enabled payment systems need to be done on priority basis. So too is reaching out for still unbanked Indians, especially women, for enabling PMJDY further to reach 100% of India’s household.
The masterstroke of starting accounts with zero balance is evident in the amount actually deposited in these accounts. Total deposits crossed over ₹1.5 lakh crores. Let’s look at some comparisons to sense the victory of these zero opening-balance account deposits. How much cash does Reliance, India’s largest corporation, have in banks – less than ₹20,000 crores! What is the cash balance of well known national banks, say Bank of Baroda, ₹1.2–1.8 lakh crore.
Success of PMJDY can largely be attributed to uncomplicated access to these banking services to anyone who wants it, i.e. there is no categorisation of beneficiaries, which largely stems from the mantra of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. The provisions made to ease account opening and operations in the form of no minimum balance requirement, embedded accident insurance cover, banking service on any phone (read non-smartphone), active monitoring and grievance–redressal mechanism have made this grand success feasible. India shows yet again a large-scale implementation capability not seen anywhere else in the world.
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