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Amid a raging second Covid wave that threatens to derail economic recovery, the business correspondents fraternity has urged the Finance Minister to restart the monthly cash transfers to PMJDY beneficiaries — successfully done last year — to offset the impact of the second wave on the low income households.
BCFI letter
“On similar lines (last year when cash transfer was done to women Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana account holders), a timely decision to release a monthly cash transfer of ₹1000 to PMJDY accounts starting from May 2021 for next six months will be of great support for the livelihoods devastated by the second wave.
“This will also help in the revival of financial and commercial activity, particularly in rural India,” Sunil Kulkarni, chief executive officer at Business Correspondents Federation of India (BCFI), said in a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.
Kulkarni stated that as had been done last year, BCFI’s network of PMJDY Bank Mitras (BC agents) spread across the nation would ensure the last mile delivery to the beneficiaries even in underserved difficult geographies. Last year, as part of the Covid-19 relief package, the Finance Minister had provided cash transfers to women PMJDY bank accounts to support low-income households that lacked the safety net to counter the unexpected sudden drop in daily income due to pandemic-induced lock down.
The cash transfer involved ₹500 credited each month (for 3 months) to all the 20 crore women beneficiaries of PMJDY and led to total outgo of ₹30,000 crore for the exchequer.
Need for cash transfers
D Tripathy, CEO at Business Correspondents Resource Council, has written a letter to the Department of Financial Services (DFS) Secretary urging the government to restart monthly cash transfer of ₹500-1,000 to PMJDY accounts starting from May for the next 3-6 months.
Sudip Banerjee, Chief Impact Officer at FIA Global, an impact fintech providing banking services to rural India, said that migrant labourers, women in low-income households and other vulnerable groups will suffer due to loss of income in the ongoing second wave.
“The DBT in PMJDY accounts like last year can support families by boosting consumption and propping up the economy, especially rural India,” he said.
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