Kolkata: After providing bank accounts to 15 crore unbanked people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched three social security schemes, including an insurance cover for less than Re 1 per day, and said that the poor “need empowerment, not aid”.
Modi said Rs 15,800 crore has been deposited in the 15 crore Jan Dhan accounts opened in four months and the scheme to provide cooking gas subsidy directly into bank accounts of beneficiaries has helped stop pilferages and leakages worth hundreds of crores of rupees.
“I told the poor, this nation, this government and our banks are for you... poor do not want ‘sahara'. We need to change how we think. The poor need ‘shakti',” he said at the event, also attended by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Modi said 80-90 per cent people in the country neither have insurance cover nor any possibility of pension. While the three schemes will come into force from June 1, the Prime Minister said that in the first seven days of the trail-run, banks have enrolled 5.05 crore people, including 42 lakh from West Bengal.
The schemes—Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) -- were simultaneously launched at 115 locations throughout the country.
Stating that it is a misconception that large industrial houses provide more jobs, Modi said about 5.5 crore small and medium entrepreneurs provide employment to more than 14 crore people.
“We can achieve whatever but if the fruits do not reach the poor, our development journey is incomplete... we are calling the world to make in India and at the same time we are opening bank accounts for the poor,” he said.
The Prime Minister also urged people to pay small premiums towards insurance schemes for their domestic helps, drivers, and liftmen, among others.
Paying tributes to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Modi said “this land (Bengal) has been blessed by Goddess Lakshmi and Saraswati”.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said governments must always work for the people.
“Centre and states have to work together. That is when good of the nation happens. Let us dedicate this programme to the people of India,” she said.
PMSBY will offer a renewable one year accidental death-cum-disability cover of Rs 2 lakh for partial/permanent disability to all savings bank account holders in the age group of 18-70 years for a premium of Rs 12 per annum per subscriber.
PMJJBY, on the other hand, will offer a renewable one year life cover of Rs 2 lakh to all savings bank account holders in the age group of 18-50 years, covering death due to any reason, for a premium of Rs 330 per annum per subscriber.
Atal Pension Yojana will focus on the unorganised sector and provide subscribers a fixed minimum pension of Rs 1,000, Rs 2,000, Rs 3,000, Rs 4,000 or Rs 5,000 per month, starting at the age of 60 years, depending on the contribution option exercised on entering at an age between 18 and 40 years.
