Women hold 55% of Jan Dhan accounts

• Follow

New Delhi: The finance ministry on Monday said about 55% of the total account holders under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), a flagship scheme of the government to promote financial inclusion, are women.

Sharing details of various schemes with special provisions for the emancipation of women on the occasion of International Women’s Day, the ministry said these plans have financially empowered women to lead a better life and chase their dreams of being an entrepreneur.

As of February 24, 2021, 23.21 crore accounts, out of the total 41.93 crore accounts opened under the PMJDY scheme, belong to women account holders, the ministry said in a statement.

With regard to the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY), it said, about 68% or 19.04 crore accounts with an amount of Rs 6.36 lakh crore (as of February 26, 2021) have been sanctioned to women entrepreneurs under the scheme since its inception.

The Jan Dhan Yojana, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address in 2014, was launched on August 28 in the same year. The scheme envisages universal access to banking facilities with at least one basic banking account for every household, financial literacy, access to credit, insurance and pension.