Jan Dhan Yojana: A instrument for financial inclusion: The journey so far

Abstract

To achieve sustainable growth, Financial Inclusion is being talked as the major and primary step towards achieving seventeen goals laid down by United Nations for achieving Sustainable Development. Financial Inclusion is the only medium to bring larger and underprivileged strata of society into the mainstream banking system, thus providing them access to financial services. In India, till a few years back, having a savings bank account was a big thing. There used to be a single bank account per household and that too in the name of male member. In urban areas, still people had bank accounts but in rural areas, majority people did not had a bank account. For their banking needs, be it deposit or loan they approached local money lender. Clearly, the fundamental step in achieving the financial inclusion is bringing majority of population under banking net. The paper explores country’s journey through the road called Financial Inclusion, the existing standing of financial services coverage in India and the challenges that needs to be overcome to achieve complete Financial Inclusion. The study concludes that India has come a long way towards achieving financial inclusion but given the diverse demographic structure, large rural population, inherent tendency of people to deal in cash, less orientation towards using technology and technological problems requires lot of sincere and dedicated effort to achieve complete financial Inclusion.