A large chunk of population in the country remains what is called financially untouchable. It does not know what is banking system because with barely hand to mouth living, these poor and deprived people never opened bank account and never had anything to save. The Prime Minister had been thinking how this situation could be changed and how this enormous segment of population could be brought into financial mainstream with advantages to them.
The PM has floated Jan Dhan Yojna literally meaning people’s financial scheme in the country and in one day alone 1.5 crore bank accounts were opened across the country. The scheme provides zero-balance bank account with RuPay debit card and life insurance cover of Rs 30,000 in addition to accidental insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh. Hopefully, the scheme will cover about 7.5 crore people by 26 January 2015.
Modi Government has completed 100 days in office. People are naturally interested to know how much dedicated the Government is towards the commitment it made when election campaigning was going on. A hundred days is too short a period to assess the performance of a Government that has inherited enormous problems, But a decision affecting 7.5 crores of people is not a small decision by any means. A day will come when the scheme will cover all poor and deprived families in the country and in this way a new chapter will be opened in the financial history of the country. Way back in 1968, the scheme of nationalization of banks was floated in our country. That was a good step which promised strengthening of financial culture of the country. However, notwithstanding some benefits accruing from that scheme, not more than 68 per cent of population was affected leaving at least 32 per cent of population outside the loop. But, the new scheme now brought into operation and called Jan Dhan Yojna, is expected to reach each and every poor and deprived family in the country as people begin to understand its benefits.
Prime Minister has called it a historic day, and indeed it is so. The launching of the scheme was country-wide in which Union Ministers, State Chief Minister and Ministers and large number of persons from the civil society participated. Union Minister Uma Bharati inaugurated the scheme in Jammu while Dr. Jatindra Singh, Minister of State at PMO inaugurated it in Srinagar. Likewise at other capitals also the scheme was launched. The scheme has great relevance to our State because ours is a hilly state and a large chunk of population lives in hilly regions where banking facilities are not easily available and the people mostly living old style life are not aware of the facilities which banking services provide. For our State this scheme has special significance. Besides providing life insurance of Rs. 30,000 and accidental cover of 1 lakh rupees, the scheme offers overdraft facility of Rs. 5000/- Imagine the number of accidents happening on our hilly roads and the number of persons losing their precious lives in the cause of these accidents, one can understand the facility of accidental insurance provided by the scheme under discussion.
In addition to what has been offered, the scheme opens the way for poor people to become aware of banking facility and inculcate in them the habit of saving little money by making deposits in the bank that would serve them in times of need. It has also to be recognized that the banks have cooperated with the Prime Minister and now they will be responsible to make it a complete success. The idea is of eradicating poverty from the country. We have been raising the slogan of “gharibi hatao” meaning remove poverty. We all cherish that nobody should remain poor in the country. But mere slogan is not going to remove poverty unless practical steps are taken and effective plans are floated. The Prime Minister has great vision of bringing about a revolution of sorts in the economy and financial status of the country. This major step in the arena of financial and social reformation of the society will have far reaching impact.
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