Jan Dhan@10: How banking was brought to masses

"In 2014 access to banking was a distant dream of almost half of the country's households.

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NEW DELHI Elaborating on the benefits of Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which completed its 10 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that for him, this was not just a policy, but an endeavour to build an India where each has access to the formal banking apparatus.

In a post on LinkedIn, PM Modi said that the situation was very different when he took office in 2014 as access to banking was a distant dream of almost half of the country's households.

"Many of you, especially the youth, would be thinking- why does this matter so much? After all, in this age, having a bank account would be very basic and even taken for granted.

However, when we assumed office in 2014, the situation was very different. It was almost 65 years since Independence, but access to banking was a distant dream for almost half of our households. Theirs was a world where savings were kept at home, vulnerable to loss and theft. Access to credit was often at the mercy of predatory lenders. The absence of financial security held back so many dreams," he said.