Poor People’s Savings Trapped in Dead Accounts

The Social Democratic Party of India stands with the poor and marginalized people of India in exposing the total failure of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. The share of inoperative accounts in public sector banks has risen to twenty six percent as of September 2025, up from twenty one percent the previous year. This means that out of fifty four crore fifty five lakh Jan Dhan accounts, nearly fourteen crore twenty eight lakh are lying dormant, trapping twelve thousand seven hundred seventy nine crore rupees of the poor people’s savings. This sharp rise is not just a number; it is a national betrayal after eleven years of unfulfilled promises and false claims of inclusion.

Launched in the year 2014 with loud claims of financial inclusion, the scheme has turned into a political showpiece. The government’s own admission in April 2025 of closing one crore fifty lakh duplicate and zero balance accounts exposes the deep rooted corruption within the system. Earlier, the Comptroller and Auditor General had already highlighted that twenty to thirty percent of the early accounts were fake, opened in a hasty rush to claim success. Women, who hold nearly fifty six percent of all Jan Dhan accounts, have been let down the most. Around seventy percent of these accounts remain inactive, and in states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, inactivity among rural women crosses eighty percent, according to the National Sample Survey Office data. This is tokenism paraded as women empowerment, leaving millions of our sisters outside the circle of real progress.

The economic failure of the scheme is equally glaring. Only twenty one percent of accounts are used for savings, seven point eight percent for digital payments, and just nine percent for loans. The average balance is four thousand seven hundred sixty eight rupees, less than half the promised ten thousand. The World Bank has termed India’s forty percent account dormancy rate as the highest in the world, clearly showing that access without employment, in a nation with forty five crore jobless youth, means no real inclusion at all. Even worse, nearly fifteen percent of these accounts have been misused in cyber scams, resulting in losses exceeding one thousand crore rupees last year. Elderly citizens, Muslims, Dalits, and other vulnerable minorities have been the primary victims, trapped in fraudulent schemes through sheer government negligence.

The list of broken promises is endless. About thirty one percent of RuPay cards have not been issued. Overdraft benefits have reached only two percent of users. Insurance claims have been paid to less than half a percent. What we are witnessing is not financial inclusion, but financial exclusion presented with deceptive statistics. The poor are being used to decorate government data sheets, not to improve their lives.

The Social Democratic Party of India demands immediate corrective action. We call for a full audit by the Reserve Bank of India of all dormant Jan Dhan accounts, a complete refund of twelve thousand seven hundred seventy nine crore rupees to rightful account holders within ninety days, strict penalties on banks found responsible for manipulation, compulsory digital literacy programmes for rural and poor citizens, and a shift towards employment linked financial schemes that ensure true economic justice.

Mohammad Shafi
National Vice President