Women’s World Banking, NABARD ink MoU for Jan Dhan Plus program

Mumbai: The National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development and Women’s World Banking have signed an MoU to promote the Jan Dhan Plus program through Regional Rural Banks, here on Thursday, officials said.

The partnership will enhance the usage and adoption of basic financial services for over eight crore Jan Dhan accounts, including 5.45 crore women account-holders, in the country.

This will elevate financial inclusion by adopting and improving use of services like savings, micro-insurance, pensions and facilitating access to credit for women and Women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs).

The new tie-up will scale up the Jan Dhan Plus program leveraging the network of 57,563 business correspondents, BIRD centres, Financial Literacy Centres and RRBs to reach some of the most underserved individuals in mofussil areas.

Besides, NABARD and WWB will devise a Gender Intentional Index to foster greater gender responsiveness among RRBs.

The GIIN, initially leveraging supply-side data like accounts, RuPay cards, deposits, social security schemes, loans/credits, workforce statistics and agent networks is expected to revolutionize gender-focused financial inclusion strategies.

The project has received support from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, and later the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation joined in the initiative.

NABARD Chairman Shaji K.V. said that the partnership goes beyond mere account access and will enhance use of financial services along with fostering enterprise development for women and SHGs.

“Designing and working with a gender-inclusive approach not only benefits individual women but also has a ripple effect on our households and communities at large. The introduction of the GIIN is expected to spark healthy competition among RRBs and automate the collection and reporting of gender-disaggregated data,” noted Shaji.

Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs Head of Macroeconomic Support (Ms) Franziska Sporri hailed the Financial Inclusion Fund of NABARD as “among the largest, supporting low-income segments” that will boost women’s participation in accessing formal financial services.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Program Officer Prabir Borooah said that the Jan Dhan Infrastructure is a prime example of usage of Digital Public Infrastructure in financial inclusion and the RRBs play a pivotal role in driving its products through the SHGs in rural areas.

The Foundation will support the program by targeting to build capacity of 43 RRBs and 3 BIRD centres for the purpose.

WWB Regional head Kalpana Ajayan said that Jan Dhan Plus has gained global recognition and featured in the World Bank DPI Report recently endorsed by heads of state.

The GIIN, a unique initiative for India would redefine and realign financial inclusion action plans and programs particularly within the context of RRBs.