Over 55% Jan Dhan account holders are women: Finance Ministry

Of the nearly 44 crore Jan Dhan bank account holders in the country, more than 55 per cent are women account holders, the Finance Ministry informed Parliament on Monday.

There are as many as 43.90 crore beneficiaries of the PMJDY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana) account holders in the country as of November 17, 2021, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Of these, as many as 24.42 crore are female beneficiaries as informed by the banks, which comprises 55.60 per cent of the total PMJDY accounts, he added.

When asked about the number of people benefitted from this scheme in Gujarat, he said there are a total of 1.65 crore beneficiaires in Gujarat, of which 0.84 crore (51 per cent) are the women bank account holders.

The government had announced the PMJDY on August 15, 2014, under the National Mission on Financial Inclusion with a view to increasing banking penetration, promote financial inclusion and provide at least one bank account per household across the country.

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The scheme was extended beyond 14 August 2018 with the focus on opening of accounts shifting from 'every household' to 'every unbanked adult' with certain modifications.

There is no requirement to maintain any minimum balance in PMJDY accounts.

In a separate question on Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA), Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said: "The number of new accounts opened under Sukanya Samriddhi Account from April 1, 2018 to October 31, 2021 is 1,42,73,910."

Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh are the top five states in that order with the highest number of SSA accounts.

Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Ladakh, Mizoram and Sikkim rank at the bottom five. "The reasons for varying number of accounts in different states could be the size of the population, ability and willingness of parents to save etc," Chaudhary said.

Whereas the public sector banks accounted for the bulk of such account opening at 96.24 per cent, private sector banks had a share of 3.76 per cent in opening such accounts since the launch of the scheme till October 31, 2021.

However, the minister said that accounts opened under SSA in various post offices have not been considered while calculating the distribution proportion of banks.

Parents can open an SSA with a minimum deposit of Rs 250 and maximum of Rs 1.5 lakh in a year in the name of a girl child till she attains the age of 10 years.

Only one account can be opened in the name of the girl child and the amount matures on completion of a period of 21 years from the date of opening of the account.

Since the inception of the scheme in December 2014, the interest rate on SSA had dropped from 9.1 per cent to 7.6 per cent (stipulated for April 1, 2020- December 30, 2021 period), as per data from National Savings Institute.