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Among the most visible beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, are women.

Women hold 55.6% of the total 53.13 crore PMJDY bank accounts, M Nagaraju, Secretary of the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance said in a conversation with YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma. 

“It’s a great, in fact, unimaginable empowerment for women living in rural areas and who are very poor,” Nagaraju said. 

Over the last ten years, PMJDY has been instrumental in increasing banking penetration across the country. The scheme was launched to ensure every Indian household has access to banking facilities, and further expand the scope of financial literacy and social security cover.

The scheme has given women in rural areas of the country independence from their husbands, families and sons by giving them control of their own finances, Nagaraju noted. 

“That kind of freedom of choice, freedom of economic activity actually opened up many, many doors to women in rural areas.”

He explained that when a woman is handed the reins of financial freedom, there is an “infectious impact” as their daughters, who go to school and later enrol in colleges, will also open their own bank accounts. 

Today, there are more than 173 crore operative CASA accounts (current account savings account) in the country, including more than 53 crore operative PMJDY accounts. 

As of August 14, 2024, 53.13 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened, with a deposit balance of Rs 2.3 lakh crore.

The goal is to open more than 3 crore PMJDY accounts during the current financial year, targeting adults and young adults who have yet to open a bank account. 

Additionally, the government can, without leakages, transfer funds as part of different schemes directly to the beneficiaries to their bank accounts, improving access to the scheme, the Secretary added. 

The states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh are the leading beneficiaries of the PMJDY scheme. 

“I’m actually excited about Mudra Yojana,” Nagaraju added. 

PM Mudra Yojana provides collateral-free institutional finance of up to Rs 10 lakh to micro and small business units to facilitate income generation activities. 

Earlier, small businesses in rural areas used to approach money lenders and non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs) for loans but today, the government can help them take loans from commercial and public sector banks. 

“This has not been possible without the first primary pillar, the foundation—PM Jan Dhan Yojana”, he added. 

The scheme is the base on which the rest of the schemes such as Stand Up India scheme (which facilitates bank loans for SC/ST and women entrepreneurs) and others have been built, Nagaraju noted. 

The financial inclusion enabled by the scheme has played an essential role in India’s digital transformation, aided by the digital public infrastructure built on India Stack. 

India Stack is a digital identity, payment, and data-management system that enables people in the country’s formal and informal economies to accept payments, transfer funds, and settle invoices with just a few screen taps.