Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
In August 2014, the introduction of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana came as a National Mission for Financial Inclusion. It has the purpose of accessing most financial services for citizens and making it simple for them. These include basic deposit and savings accounts, credit, remittance, pension, insurance, and others available with an inexpensive pay range. The Indian Prime Minister came up with the idea of the Jan Dhan Yojana to ensure that the citizens can envisage their financial activities securely across the country.
PMJDY aims at covering every household with a basic Bank Account and a RuPay Debit Card. It can have an inbuilt insurance cover worth ₹100,000. Moreover, it also includes an overdraft facility of up to ₹5,000. Furthermore, the mission of PM Jan Dhan Yojana also includes Direct Benefit Transfer under the Indian Government schemes. The long-term goal of the scheme is to extend the Financial Literacy Program to the grassroots levels of villages.
Jan Dhan Yojana is, therefore, an essential and ambitious scheme from the Indian Government. The ultimate objective is to enable the citizens to understand financial operations and conduct them without difficulties. Keeping this in mind, some of the smaller objectives of the PMJDY scheme include the following:
1. Dividing each district into Sub Service Areas (SSA) to ensure banking services are available to them
2. Providing each household with Basic Banking Accounts and RuPay Debit cards
3. Spreading financial literacy to the village levels
4. Creating Credit Guarantee Fund for covering defaults in overdraft accounts
5. Providing microinsurance to the eligible citizens
6. Designing pension schemes like Swavlamban for the unorganized sector
Eligibility Criteria
1. The applicant should be an Indian National.
2. The applicant should be aged between 18 and 59 years. If minors above ten years apply, they will require support from their legal guardians for administering their PMJDY account.
3. Entities eligible for this scheme include retired bank employees, teachers, and government employees.
4. In addition, individual owners of shops, Public Call Office operators, owners of petrol pumps, agents of small scheme companies, etc., can also apply.
Note: State or Central Government employees, public sector employees, and people with taxable income will not be eligible for life cover insurance under Jan Dhan Yojana.
Benefits
1. Indian citizens, particularly those residing in rural areas, can receive management assistance for their financial requirements.
2. The banking process is made simple with the help of Bank Mitras, which guides the citizens regarding mobile banking usage.
3. Account holders will not have to maintain any minimum amount.
4. Beneficiaries can enjoy interest on their deposits.
5. Citizens without immediate access to legal documents and ID proofs can open small accounts without producing documents for at least 12 months.
6. The scheme provides easy access to pensions and insurance to the beneficiaries.
7. Beneficiaries can avail of an overdraft facility for up to ₹10,000. However, this is only available against one account per household.
8. This scheme also provides loans of up to ₹5,000 to beneficiaries after completing six months of account transactions.
9. Beneficiaries get up to ₹30,000 for life cover insurance in case of death within the specified term.
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How to Apply
Application Process
Step 1- Go to the official portal of PMJDY.Step 2- Under the “e-documents” section, you will find live links for “Account Opening Form”. Applicants can access this in both English and Hindi languages. Click on the
appropriate language option.
Step 3- This will open the form in PDF format. Download it and get a printout.
Step 4- Fill the form manually with all your bank and personal data, including bank branch, name of town/village, block/district, Aadhaar number, profession, annual income, details of Kisan credit card, and others.
Step 5- Once you fill it out, visit your nearest bank branch and submit it.