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Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)

Context: In the past two financial years, only 329 of the 647 claims filed for accident insurance cover provided to bank account holders under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) have been settled.

More on the news

• The information was revealed in a reply to an RTI (Right to Information) application filed.
• In August 2014, while launching the Jan Dhan Yojana that was hailed as an unprecedented step for financial inclusion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also announced accident cover for the account holders.
• The accident insurance cover for death or permanent disability is extended to all the 48.65 crore account holders, more than 50% of them women. No premium is charged from account holders.
• Under the PMJDY, a RuPay debit card is provided to account holders. The key condition to get the accident insurance is that the beneficiary must have performed at least one successful transaction (financial or non-financial) using the card in the 90 days prior to the date of the accident. This condition can make filing claims difficult.
• In 2021-22, 341 claims were received, of which 182 were settled and 48 rejected. No details about the remaining 111 cases was provided by the Union Finance Ministry. The total claim amount paid for the period was ₹2.27 crore.
• In 2022-23, 306 claims were received, of which 147 were settled and 10 rejected. Again no information was shared on the status of the remaining 149 claims. The total claim payout for the year was ₹1.88 crore.

About the scheme

• The objective of Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana is to ensure availability of various financial services such as availability of basic savings bank account, availability of need based credit, remittance facility, insurance and pension to the disadvantaged sections such as weaker sections and low income groups. Wide spread at an economical cost is possible only with the responsible use of technology.
• The scheme envisages at least one basic banking account for each household, financial literacy, access to credit, insurance and all banking including pension facilities.
• Designed to provide facilities. In addition, the beneficiaries will be given a RuPay Debit Card which includes an accidental insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh.It was later increased to 2 lakh.
• The scheme envisages systematisation of all government benefits (received from Central / State / Local bodies) into the accounts of the beneficiaries and to take forward the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme of the Central Government. weak link, Technological issues like online transactions will be resolved.