'Suraksha Bandhan' drive around Rakhi festival to push social security

The government will launch a special "Suraksha Bandhan" enrolment drive for its social security schemes through innovative plans like gift cheques and special deposits coinciding with the Raksha Bandhan festival coming up this month, it was announced on Sunday.

"A special enrolment drive is being launched by participating banks and insurance companies in the months of August-September, in the backdrop of the forthcoming festival of Raksha Bandhan," a finance ministry statement said.

"The drive will reach out to the pool of eligible bank account holders who are yet to be enrolled under these schemes - namely the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) for accident and disability cover of up to Rs.2 lakh at an annual premium of Rs.12 and the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) for a term life cover of Rs.2 lakh at an annual premium of Rs.330," it said.

"The envisaged social security initiative also includes the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), launched along with the above two insurance schemes, which addresses the issue of old age income security by facilitating regular contributions during the working life of the subscriber for a guaranteed pension at the age of 60, with certain government contribution for eligible subscribers who enroll by December 31, 2015," it added.

The Suraksha Bandhan drive seeks to encourage people to gift social security plans to their near ones. It will be supported through the Jeevan Suraksha gift cheques to be made available for Rs.351 in bank branches to facilitate one year payment of premium for PMJJBY and PMSBY by the recipient.

The recipient of the gift cheque would deposit the instrument in the bank account for a realisable value of Rs.342 (Rs.12 + Rs.330) to cover one-year subscription to the schemes.

The balance of Rs.9 would be retained by the issuing bank as a service charge.

Banks will also provide a facility to account holders under the Suraksha Deposit Scheme and the Jeevan Suraksha Deposit Scheme aimed at enabling them to deposit Rs.201 or Rs.5,001, respectively in their accounts either on their own initiative, or based on cash or cheques received as gifts on Raksha Bandhan for subscription to the schemes, the ministry said.