Govt to provide more funds to social security schemes: Jaitley

To expand social security coverage, government will provide more resources for flagship schemes such as Atal Pension Yojana and also launch their new variants, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched social security schemes -- the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) -- in May with the objective of providing universal social security.
"As our economy is prospering, these schemes will be allotted more resources and there will be more variants with improvements," Jaitley said at the second meeting of Consultative Committee attached to the Finance Ministry.

The present government is fully committed to its goal of universal social security, he emphasised.
The Finance Minister said that so far, 7.84 crore people have registered under PMSBY, 2.70 crore under PMJJBY and 4.69 lakh subscribers have joined APY.
In order to have better policy formulation and coordination, the government plans to bring various social security schemes run by different departments or ministries under one roof, he said.

These schemes are way for future and the government will bring about other variants of the schemes in the near future, he said.
At present, only 11 per cent of the population is covered under pension schemes while only 20 per cent of the people are insured and the government wants to improve the situation by bringing maximum people under these benefits, the Finance Minister said.

With regard to financial inclusion initiative of the government, Jaitley said Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), has recorded a success with opening of 16.73 crore accounts within a year with a total deposits of Rs 19,990.52 crore.
He said that the government subsequently encouraged to widen the approach to social security for all sections of society by introducing micro insurance, micro pension and micro credit schemes.
He said that the movement from Jan Dhan to Jan Suraksha has been facilitated by the government within one year itself.
Later, Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Aadhia made a presentation on the present level of implementation of these schemes.

Under the PMJDY, Aadhia said that the number of zero balance accounts has come down from initial 75 per cent to 52 per cent. As on July 8, 2015, he said that total number of 14.86 crore Rupay cards have been issued under the scheme to account holders.