Financial inclusion has been a focus area of the government. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) was launched in 2014 and subsequently more financial inclusion schemes were launched. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) through various initiatives has also been working to enhance awareness and bring more people under the financial ambit
Financial inclusion is strengthening in India with the initiatives taken for this purpose. On a question in the Lok Sabha about the status of financial inclusion in the country, particularly for women, Union Financial Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said in a written reply, “A total of 54.58 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened till 15.01.2025, of which 30.37 crore (55.7 per cent) belong to women”.
The PMJDY was started in 2014 and has completed 10 years in August 2024. The initiative was launched to bring every unbanked household in India under the banking and financial ambit. Later, it was further extended to every person instead of every household with a focus on including women.
The National Mission for Financial Inclusion (NMFI) initiative focused on women to provide them with social security and provide them with credit-linked schemes for their financial empowerment. “All Banks, including private banks, participate in these activities to ensure the effectiveness of these schemes and make them accessible to all stakeholders”, the reply read.
Besides bringing every adult under the banking system by opening their bank account, other schemes were started to provide them with social security, insurance, and loan availability. These schemes include Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), RBI’s Centre for Financial Literacy (CFL)initiatives to spread financial awareness, making digital banking available to all by setting-up 107 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) as of December 2024, and launching Jan Samarth Portal for providing faster and hassle-free loans to people.
In addition to it, a vast network of 13 lakh Banking Correspondents has been developed to provide banking services in remote areas and bring more people into financial inclusion schemes.
She also mentioned in her reply the state-level bankers’ committees, which are there to work and coordinate between various entities, including government agencies, financial institutions, insurance companies, banks, etc.
As per the data given in reply, there were 545,780,806 PMJDY accounts, 225,220,758 PMJJBY accounts, and 491,225,285 Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) accounts opened as of January 15, 2025. There have been 72,577,540 enrolments in the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) as of December 31, 2025.
The loan accounts sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) were 516,714,297 as of January 24, 2025, Stand Up India (SUPI) loan accounts were 259,797 as of January 27, 2025, and sanctioned PMSVANidhi loan accounts were 9,915,053 as of December 31, 2024. The number of sanctioned loans under PM Vishwakarma loan accounts stood at 297,940 as of January 30, 2025.