PM Jan Dhan Yojana has brought 2.2 crore poor into banking fold in Odisha

PMJDY has integrated the poor into the economic mainstream, says CM Majhi

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi

BHUBANESWAR: The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), one of the largest financial inclusion initiatives, has been a big success in Odisha with all households having been brought into the formal banking system through opening of bank accounts.

In 10 years of the scheme launched on August 14, 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, nearly 22 million beneficiaries (2,19,25,984) of the state have been brought into the ambit of formal banking system with a deposit mobilisation of Rs 9,706.10 crore as on August 14, 2024. As many as 15,494,993 beneficiaries have been issued RuPay cards which also provide for Rs 2 lakh accident insurance cover.

On this occasion, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi in a message on his X handle said, “The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, a welfare scheme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has played a crucial role in integrating the poor into the economic mainstream. It is heartening to know that about 53.13 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened in the country.”

The chief minister said the Jan Dhan accounts have been instrumental in receiving direct benefit transfers under various welfare schemes, be it PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Fasal Bima, Ayushman Bharat, Garib Kalyan Yojana or PM Ujjwala Yojana, without any middlemen.

As per the latest progress report on PMJDY, 74,20,665 of the total 74,32,140 households in the state have been covered under the financial inclusion programme, which is 99.85 per cent. The household coverage in Malkangiri is 87.74 per cent.

As per the 2011 census report, there were more than 3,800 villages in the state where not a single household had access to banking facility. Besides, there were over 4,900 villages where the percentage of households having bank accounts were in the range of 0.1 to 9.9 per cent.

Similarly, availability of banking facility in 10,801 villages was within the range of 10 to 29 per cent and in 10,575 villages, households having bank accounts were within 49.9 per cent. Only 1,300 villages of the state had 100 per cent coverage with all households having bank accounts.

In the first year of the scheme, over 40 lakh accounts were opened of which more than 60 per cent accounts were zero balance accounts.

In 2023-24, the state government had given a target to all the banks operating in the state to open 16 lakh PMJDY accounts against which, over 13.30 lakh accounts were opened with an achievement of 83.13 per cent of the target.