Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s financial inclusion programme Jan Dhan Yojana has been a huge success, but its in-built social security feature has failed to take off. The insurance cover that comes with the Jan Dhan scheme remains a non-starter with only 9,566 claims paid from a meagre 12,260 applications.
There are more than 34.73 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Account holders in the country and the number of people who received benefits under the inbuilt social security insurance schemes is abysmally low at less than 10,000.
Jan Dhan Yojana was launched in August 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under a multi pronged strategy to combine financial inclusion with social security and several other services including direct benefit of transfers (DBT) and a overdraft facility. Jan Dhan scheme offers an in-built life cover of Rs 30,000 and another accidental insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh to RuPay debit card holders. Of the total claims made under Jan Dhan Yojana, 5,323 are related to life cover and 4,243 are related to accidental coverage claims.
Compared with the dismal claim ratio of the Jan Dhan Yojana, the ratio for two other social security schemes – Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) is very high.
According to the latest official data, a total of 1.77 lakh claims were approved under PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and an amount of Rs 3,556 crore was paid in three years of the scheme. The flagship insurance scheme offers a maximum compensation of Rs 2 lakh in case of death, including death by suicide.
Similarly, under the PM Suraksha Bima Yojana which offers a life cover of Rs 2 lakh in case of accidental death and a cover of Rs 1 lakh in case of permanent disability for an annual premium of just Rs 12, the claims to enrollment ratio is 0.22%. In the three financial years: 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18, a total of 30,548 claims amounting to a gross sum of Rs 610.53 crore were paid against a total enrollment of 13.48 crore beneficiaries under the scheme.
