Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (''Prime Minister Jeevan Jyoti Insurance Scheme'') is a

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

-backed

Life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...

scheme in India. It was originally mentioned in the year 2015 Budget speech by the then-

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, late

Arun Jaitley Arun Jaitley (28 December 1952 – 24 August 2019) was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jait ...

in February 2015. It was formally launched by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

on 9 May in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. As of May 2015, only 20% of India's population has any kind of insurance, this scheme aims to increase the number. Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana is available to people between 18 and 50 years of age with bank accounts. It has an annual premium of . The

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is exempted on Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana. The amount will be automatically debited from the account on or before 31 May every year. Period for which insurance covered is 12 months i.e, from 1 June till 31 May. Those who register for auto debit facility will have auto renewal up to 55 years. However, a person over age 50 cannot register to this scheme. There is no need for a person to submit health report or certificate while joining to this scheme. In case of death due to any cause, the payment to the nominee will be . In order to avail of the benefits offered by the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana

policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organ ...

, it is mandatory to link your Aadhaar Card to the participatory

bank account A bank account is a financial account maintained by a bank or other financial institution in which the financial transactions between the bank and a customer are recorded. Each financial institution sets the terms and conditions for each type o ...

. This scheme will be linked also to the bank accounts opened under the

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana () is a financial inclusion program of the Government of India open to Indian citizens (minors of age 10 and older can also open an account with a guardian to manage it), that aims to expand affordable access to f ...

scheme. Most of these account had zero balance initially. The Government aims to reduce the number of such zero balance accounts by using this and related schemes. Now all bank account holders can avail this facility through their net-banking service facility or filling a form at the bank branch at any time of the year. The premium is deducted automatically from the insured's bank account. Insured's family members will receive a sum insured of ₹2 lakh after insured's death.

Results

As of 31 March 2019, 5.92 crore (59.2 million) people have already enrolled for this scheme. 1,35,212 claims have been disbursed, amounting to a total of ₹2,704.22

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

. As per news reports from 2021, the scheme has failed during the

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, in which the country suffered an unusually high number of deaths. The article cites some possible reasons for this failure: * There is a very small window of 30 days post-death (with the caveat "preferably") to apply for the claim; therefore, most claims are rejected if received after 30 days. * There is no policy document or any other document given under PMJJBY, which is why families do not even know that there is such a policy under which they can claim insurance, which is one reason why they are deprived of the scheme's benefits. There is absence of a clear "Guidance Manual" on how to apply for claims. Therefore, a large number of nominees of the deceased, who had taken the PMJJBY policy, are not even aware of it, as also whether the premium was paid or not. * It is impractical to arrange for several documents such as death certificate/ death proof, discharge slip from hospital, premium statement from the bank, etc., within 30 days of death. * There are a large number of accounts in which no nominee is linked. In such a situation, the family has to go through a lengthy legal process separately, which takes ages. Therefore, it is necessary to simplify the claim process and increase the claim amount so that the nominee and/ or the family can get some immediate help to come out of the deep financial crisis brought on by COVID. * There is no monitoring system specifically for PMJJBY set up by the Central Govt. No grievance redressal mechanism has been created. In short, there is low awareness of the scheme, no guidance or policy manual and tight restrictions; hence, the less educated and poor beneficiaries have to run from pillar to post to take advantage of the scheme's benefit.

References

{{Government Schemes in India Modi administration initiatives Government schemes in India Social security in India Life insurance in India 2015 introductions 2015 in India

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See also

References