Data released by the government recently has revealed that the number of dormant accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has gone down by 50 percent. Now, one in every five Jan Dhan accounts is reportedly active.
As of January 15, 2020, there are a total of 37.87 crore accounts under the welfare scheme, of which 81.3 percent, ie., 30.78 crore accounts, are in operation. In March 2017, 40 percent of the Jan Dhan accounts were inoperative; against this, the share of inactive accounts declined to 18 percent in 2020. As per a Hindu Business Line report, the maximum number of inoperative accounts are in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar right now.
The government data has not revealed any pertinent detail of the nearly seven crore inactive account, if they are dormant, closed or are used for transactions for a certain period after which they remained unused.
Notably, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordains that savings accounts, including the Jan Dhan accounts, are to be considered inoperative if no transaction is made for more than two years.
While the information on the number of closed PMJDY accounts is not maintained by the Centre, the Department of Financial Services under the Finance Ministry has informed the number of such accounts have only been growing by the year. Large sums of money were reportedly withdrawn from these accounts during demonetisation. After this, in the post-demonetisation period, the number of inoperative accounts rose to 40 percent, but their share has been declining every year.
The PMJDY scheme was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre in 2014, right after it had assumed power. The aim of the welfare scheme was to provide banking facilities to all, with one savings account for every household, and increase financial literacy in the remote reaches. In 2018, the ambit of the scheme was extended from every household to every adult aged between 18 to 65 years. The overdraft limit was simultaneously increased to Rs 10,000.
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