The BJP government published an infographic on the 48-months portal that makes three claims about the Jan Dhan Yojana. This article is a fact check of these claims. The BJP government published an infographic on the 48-months portal that makes three claims about the Jan Dhan Yojana. This article is a fact check of these claims. What is the Jan Dhan Yojana? According to the official website, ‘the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is a National Mission on Financial Inclusion encompassing an integrated approach to bring about comprehensive financial inclusion of all the households in the country. The plan envisages universal access to banking facilities with at least one basic banking account for every household, financial literacy, access to credit, insurance and pension facility. In addition, the beneficiaries would get RuPay Debit card having inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh. The plan also envisages channelling all Government benefits to the beneficiaries’ accounts and pushing the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme of the Union Government’. A response in Lok Sabha in November 2014 stated that ‘PMJDY was formally launched in August, 2014. The Yojana envisages universal access to banking facilities with at least one basic banking account for every household, financial literacy, access to credit, insurance and pension. The beneficiaries would get a RuPay Debit Card having inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs.1.00 Iakh. In addition, there is a life insurance cover of Rs. 30000 to those people who open their bank accounts for the first time between August 2014 & January 2015 and meet other eligibility conditions of the Yojana’. Further, the government stated in the Lok Sabha that, ‘PMJDY is different from the earlier financial inclusion programme (Swabhimaan) as it seeks to provide universal access to banking services across the country and focuses on coverage of all households (both rural and urban) while the earlier Financial Inclusion programme was limited to providing access point to villages with population greater than 2000. Further, PMJDY focuses on interoperability of accounts which was not there earlier; has simplified KYC guidelines and involves the Districts and States for monitoring and follow-up’. To add to this, ‘there is no requirement of maintaining any minimum balance in case of accounts opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)’. However, it has to be noted that the concept of zero balance accounts (or no minimum balance account) is not new. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had directed all banks in the year 2005 to make available a basic banking ‘no-frills’ account either with ‘nil’ or very low minimum balances. Such an account was called ‘Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA)’. In fact, the RBI has now issued notifications with instructions that a BSBD account-holder of a particular Bank cannot open any other savings bank deposit account in the same bank, including the PMJDY account. In other words, a BSBD account is treated on par with a PMJDY account. How many accounts have been opened under the scheme? The first claim is that ‘31.52 crore Jan Dhan accounts opened’. Responses in the Lok Sabha show that, ‘as of December 2017, a total of 30.71 crore accounts have been opened under PMJDY and more recently, ‘as per the data sourced from banks, as of January 2019, out of the total 34.03 crore PMJDY accounts, 5.06 crore accounts were having zero balance’. Claim: 31.52 crore Jan Dhan accounts opened. Fact: As per data sourced from the bank, as on 23 January of 2019, there are a total of 34.03 crore PMJDY accounts. The number is higher due to the dynamic nature of the data, hence, the claim is TRUE. However, it has to be noted that financial inclusion as a concept is not new and about 15% of the PMJDY accounts have zero balance. Does India account for more than half of the new bank accounts in the world between 2014-17? The second claim is that ‘according to the World Bank Findex Report, India accounts for 55% of new bank accounts opened globally between 2014-17’. The first Global Findex survey was completed in 2011, followed by a second round in 2014 and the latest one in 2017. Globally over those intervals, the share of adults with an account rose from 51% to 62% and then to 69%. The report notes, ‘in India the share of adults with an account has more than doubled since 2011, to 80 percent. An important factor driving this increase was a government policy launched in 2014 to boost account ownership among unbanked adults through biometric identification cards. This policy benefited traditionally excluded groups and helped ensure inclusive growth in account ownership.