Is the PMs Jan Dhan Yojana a fight against poverty?

Is the PMs Jan Dhan Yojana a fight against poverty?

Introduction
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched one of the biggest Financial Inclusion Programmes called the ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’ on 28th Aug’14 calling this to be an end to the ‘Financial Untouchability’. The plan aims at connecting every Indian with the financial system which indirectly joins him to the economic mainstream. In his style of extempore speech, Modi compared the works of Mahatma Ghandhi towards the social untouchability to the currently launched plan against financial untouchability. He has emphasized this plan to be a step to fight against poverty. Modi has initiated the spark and this need to catch fire to get implemented in its complete extent and provide the desired result. Though the plan is to connect every person with the bank account, is that by any means helpful in fighting the poverty prevailing on a grand scale in our country? Is the PM’s Jan Dhan Yojana an actual fight against poverty?

Yes

- The plan aims at connecting every household, be it in urban or rural sector and wrap them with the financial cover. This is definitely a step to encourage every citizen to start thinking wisely and plan the finances for the future. A properly planned future w.r.t. the finances would be a big step towards eradicating poverty.

- The programme provides many benefits viz. life cover of Rs. 30,000, RuPay debit card, with an in-built accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh and an overdraft facility of Rs. 5,000, subject to satisfactory operations of the account for at least six months. These could be hardly dreamt by any poor in the country.

- For the debit card, a fee of 50 paisa will be charged per transaction, which is very nominal and affordable even by those under the lower socio-economic strata.

- The insurance cover is free for the account holders which imply that the poor class can have the insurance cover and secure the future of their family members and kids.

- This mega financial inclusion programme is a way to teach the financial discipline to all sections of the society. The economic status of the country will have a sound hand with the rise of the poor sections and their joining hands in the financial loops to share the economic burden.

No

- Planning the future and opening a bank account is upto the earnings and expense in the family. These things vary from family to family and we cannot impose the requirement of the bank account to every person.

- A person needs to be literate enough to manage the bank account. Opening an account for an illiterate may lead to some unfair play with the savings of the concerned person. Instead of fighting poverty, this might make the poor person bankrupt without the knowledge of the happenings.

- Government has induced many additional benefits to the opening of the bank account. The government is planning to reimburse banks for these. The amount spent on such plans is nothing but the taxes levied from the common man. This is highly unfair and mis-guiding to spend the hard-earned money of the common man to provide the unwanted lucrative offers.

- The life cover of Rs.30,000 is just for the bank accounts opened by January 26. The poverty can’t have a deadline. With the limited time offer, the administrators have clearly emphasized their intention of attracting their potential customers, and this is no fight against poverty.

- The life cover to the account holder may result in some fatal crimes. People already dying hard in their poverty might dare to lose their life to provide the amount of life cover to protect their family. Conversely, there could be incidences where the family members might kill the account holder in lure for money.

Conclusion

Every new approach finds some hard rocks to show its determination and attitude towards the success path. This plan might be accompanied by some risk factors, but we need to dare to fight against the evil cause. Poverty is like a termite, and very correctly stated, it is the root cause of ‘financial untouchability’. We need such plans to include the poor class into the financial stream and guide them regarding the benefits for the same. Handling a bank account and the insurance cover doesn’t demand the person to be educated, it just requires the basic knowledge which could be explained by the bank officials or anybody else. Again, if the funds the government is utilizing is the one from the taxes, then it is really wise to create the balance in the economic status. A bold step in indeed required to withstand the heat of economic downsurge and fight poverty, and the Jan Dhan Yojana is definitely a good fighting mechanism to check the poverty.