More than 50.09 crore accounts have been opened under the PM Jan Dhan Yojana in the last nine years and the deposit balance swelled to over Rs 2.03 lakh crore, the Finance Ministry said on Saturday.

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) was launched on August 28, 2014, with the aim to provide universal banking services through the opening of zero-balance bank accounts for every unbanked household, based on the guiding principles of banking the unbanked, securing the unsecured and funding the unfunded.

Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi said 33.98 crore RuPay cards were issued to PMJDY account holders as of August 2023, up from 13 crore at the end of March 2015.

"Currently there are 225 crore bank accounts in the country. The data shows that many people have more than one bank account. Overall in terms of account opening, we are nearing saturation," Joshi said.

He said the zero balance accounts under Jan Dhan yojana have reduced to 8 per cent of total accounts as of August 2023, from 58 per cent in March 2015.

"We have successfully achieved the 50 crore account opening mark in August. On an average 2.5-3 crore JDY accounts have been opened every year," Joshi said on the eve of Jan Dhan Yojana completing 9 years on August 28.

The average deposits in Jan Dhan accounts have increased from Rs 1,065 as of March 2015 to Rs 4,063 in August 2023, an increase of 3.8 times. 56 per cent of the Jan Dhan account holders are women and 67 per cent of the total accounts are in rural and semi-urban areas.

Some of the features of PMJDY are, one Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) account to every unbanked adult, overdraft limit of Rs 10,000, and a free Rupay debit card with inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh (Rs 1 lakh for accounts opened before August 28, 2018).

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