PM praises Jan Dhan Yojana on 10th anniversary; Congress says ‘rebranding of initiatives’
PM Modi described the PMJDY as an “endeavour to build an India where each and every citizen, regardless of economic background, has access to formal banking apparatus”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), a scheme aimed at enhancing financial inclusion across India, as it celebrated its 10th anniversary on Wednesday, expressing gratitude to everyone who contributed to the mission’s success.

“Today marks a decade since the PMJDY was launched. For me, this initiative was more than just a policy – it was an endeavour to build an India where each and every citizen, irrespective of one’s economic background, has access to the formal banking apparatus,” the PM said in a post on social media.
Launched on August 28, 2014, the PMJDY enables individuals to open a basic savings bank deposit account without maintaining a minimum balance, while offering benefits such as interest on deposits, accident insurance, and access to overdraft facilities. Today, PMJDY has over 530 million beneficiaries, with deposits exceeding ₹2.3 lakh crore. Over 65% of these accounts are held in rural and semi-urban areas and the programme’s facilitation of direct benefit transfers (DBT) totals almost ₹39 lakh crore.
Stating that PMJDY has been crucial in “boosting financial inclusion and giving dignity to crores of people”, Modi reflected on the state of affairs in the country when his government assumed office in 2014, that despite nearly 65 years of independence then, almost half of India’s households lacked access to formal banking.
“Banks were nationalised by the then (Congress) government and that too in the name of the poor! Yet, the poor never got access to banking,” he said, describing the PMJDY as an “endeavour to build an India where each and every citizen, regardless of economic background, has access to formal banking apparatus”.
The Prime Minister highlighted that the scheme has been a game-changer for women empowerment, bringing nearly 300 million women into the formal banking system. In his post, Modi also mentioned that the benefits of the scheme have positively impacted millions of Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backward Class (OBC) families, as well as those from middle and neo-middle-class backgrounds.
The Jan Dhan Yojana has also assisted other government schemes such as the MUDRA Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, and Atal Pension Yojana, all of which rely on access to banking services.
The PM highlighted the role of the scheme in the formation of the JAM Trinity — Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile. He noted that the contribution of this trinity was to “eliminate the scourge of middlemen and touts who, for decades, thrived in public loot”. The trinity approach led to a digital payments revolution, with India now accounting for over 40% of real-time digital payments globally.
The Congress, meanwhile, criticised the Modi government’s handling of the Jan Dhan Yojana and accused the BJP-led Centre of exploiting the scheme for political gains while “neglecting the needs of the poor”.
In a post on X, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the government has turned banks into “a means of looting”, claiming that over 100 million Jan Dhan accounts have been closed, with approximately 50% of these belonging to women. The Congress questioned the accountability for the closure of 20% of the total accounts, stressing that these accounts held deposits amounting to ₹12,779 crore as of December 2023.
The Opposition party also highlighted that the average balance in Jan Dhan accounts remains below ₹5,000, specifically at ₹4,352, which they argue is insufficient for the poor to sustain themselves amid “rising inflation” under the NDA government. The Congress also accused the government of “unjustly” collecting at least ₹43,500 crore from 2018-2024 “through extra ATM transaction fees, SMS charges, and penalties for not maintaining minimum balances”.
The Congress said the Jan Dhan Yojana was merely “a rebranding of initiatives” originally launched by the Congress-led UPA government.
