Twelve years of PMJDY — assess whether growth in account numbers has translated into meaningful financial deepening.

Launched on 28 August 2014 as the National Mission for Financial Inclusion, PMJDY sought to bank the unbanked, secure the unsecured and fund the unfunded [2]. Entering its twelfth year, its success must be judged not by accounts opened but by financial deepening — sustained savings, credit and insurance use. The evidence suggests real but uneven deepening.

Access achieved at scale

• Over 56 crore accounts by August 2025, with 55.7% held by women and 66.7% in rural and semi-urban areas — a reach unmatched by any inclusion programme globally [1].
• More than 38 crore free RuPay cards issued, carrying accident insurance cover [1].

Evidence of genuine deepening

• Deposits reached ₹2.68 lakh crore; crucially, deposits grew nearly 12-fold while accounts grew three-fold, showing accounts are being used, not merely held [1].
• Average balance per account rose to ₹4,768 — 3.7 times the August 2015 level — indicating a genuine savings habit among first-time bank users [3].
• Digital transactions by PMJDY holders multiplied several times over between 2018-19 and 2024-25, marking a shift from cash to formal payment rails [1].
• As the base layer of the JAM trinity, these accounts made leakage-resistant Direct Benefit Transfer possible across subsidy, pension and income-support schemes [2][4].

Where deepening remains shallow

• An average balance under ₹5,000 is modest; for many households the account functions as a transfer conduit rather than a savings instrument [3].
• Deepening is visibly stronger in payments and savings than in credit — the overdraft and micro-credit dimension of the scheme lags its transactional success [4].
• Dormancy, uneven last-mile banking-correspondent presence and low financial literacy dilute effective usage [4].

Twelve years on, PMJDY has decisively converted access into transaction and savings behaviour, but not yet into full credit inclusion. Deepening the overdraft window, strengthening business-correspondent networks and pairing accounts with financial literacy would carry the mission from banking the unbanked to empowering them — advancing inclusive growth under SDG 8 and the Directive Principle of reducing economic inequality.