A study of performance of public sector banks in Thane city under the Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana

The Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) was announced on 15th August, 2014 as an integrated approach towards achieving financial inclusion by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. The plan envisages universal banking facilities to all households in the country, access to credit and social security in the form of insurance cover and pension facilities. The beneficiaries of this scheme would get an indigenous Rupay card with in-built accident insurance cover of Rupees one lakh. The plan also envisages transfer of all doles/subsidies to the poor from the central, state and local bodies through direct benefits transfer (DBT) to these accounts. This will save thousands of crores spent by the government for the poor which have been hitherto siphoned off by unscrupulous middlemen. To keep the accounts operational the government mandates that benefits of subsidy on LPG and MNREGA under DBT (direct benefits transfers) to these accounts. This paper attempts to study the performance of PMJDY in Thane city in Maharashtra. A well-intended scheme of the government to scale up financial inclusion faces various stumbling blocks such as illiteracy, lackadaisical attitude of banks to open zero balance accounts as it adds to their cost, manpower shortage etc. The success of this programme depends on fixing the problems proactively.