More than one in every four bank accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is inoperative, while 5.72 crore accounts have no money in them, according to information provided by the Department of Financial Services under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The data, provided in response to an RTI application filed by activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur, showed that India had 59,03,74,907 Jan Dhan accounts as of August 12, 2026, holding a combined balance of Rs 3,15,179.90 crore. Of these, 15,36,77,009 accounts were classified as inoperative — roughly 26 per cent of all accounts under the flagship financial inclusion programme — while 5,72,35,490 had zero balance.
Women hold majority accounts
Women, including transgender account holders, accounted for the majority of Jan Dhan accounts, with 32.89 crore accounts, compared with 26.14 crore held by men. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, had the largest number of PMJDY accounts at 10.51 crore. Bihar followed with 7.01 crore accounts, West Bengal with 5.73 crore, Rajasthan with 3.87 crore and Maharashtra with 3.85 crore.
Uttar Pradesh also recorded the highest number of zero-balance Jan Dhan accounts, at 95.92 lakh. It was followed by Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Maharashtra. The five states with the largest number of inoperative accounts were Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra, according to the state-wise figures supplied in the RTI response.
Several details not maintained
The RTI response, dated September 1, said the Centre does not centrally maintain a gender-wise break-up of balances held in PMJDY accounts or gender-wise data for zero-balance and inoperative accounts.
The government also said information on Jan Dhan accounts containing less than Rs 100, accounts closed during the past five years and accounts blocked or frozen because of suspicious transactions or cyber fraud was not maintained centrally. State-wise information provided in the response covered all 36 states and Union Territories.
Launched in August 2014 as the National Mission for Financial Inclusion, PMJDY was designed to bring people outside the formal banking system into its fold by providing access to basic savings accounts, remittance facilities, credit, insurance and pension products.
The latest figures underline the enormous expansion of the scheme, with more than 59 crore accounts and deposits exceeding Rs 3.15 lakh crore. At the same time, the more than 15 crore inoperative accounts raise questions over how extensively a significant section of beneficiaries continues to use the banking facilities created under the programme.