Three flagship social security schemes complete 8 years

NEW DELHI: Centre's three flagship programmes - the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY), which intended to enable affordable insurance and security to people have completed eight years of their launch.

PMJJBY, PMSBY and APY were launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 9, 2015.

As we celebrate the 8th anniversary of the three social security (or Jan Suraksha) schemes, this report will note down the progress of the schemes, including their reach among people.

To ensure that the people from the unorganised section of the country are financially secure, the Government launched two insurance schemes --PMJJBY and PMSBY; and also introduced APY to cover the exigencies in old age.

Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY):

PMJJBY is a one-year life insurance scheme renewable from year to year offering coverage for death due to any reason.

Persons in the age group of 18-50 years having an individual bank or a post office account are entitled to enrol under the scheme. People who join the scheme before completing 50 years of age can continue to have the risk of life cover up to the age of 55 years upon payment of the regular premium.

Life cover of Rs 2 Lakh in case of death due to any reason against a premium of Rs. 436 per annum. As on April 26, 2023, the cumulative enrolments under the scheme have been more than 16.19 crore and an amount of Rs. 13,290.40 crore has been paid for 664,520 claims.

Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY):

PMSBY is a one-year accidental insurance scheme renewable from year to year offering coverage for death or disability due to an accident.

Persons in the age group of 18-70 years having an individual bank or a post office account are entitled to enrol under the scheme.

Accidental death cum disability cover of Rs 2 lakh (Rs 1 lakh in case of partial disability) for death or disability due to an accident against a premium of Rs 20 per annum.

The cumulative enrolments under the scheme have been more than 34.18 crore and an amount of Rs. 2,302.26 crore has been paid for 1,15,951 claims.

Atal Pension Yojana (APY):

The Atal Pension Yojana (APY) was launched to create a universal social security system for all Indians, especially the poor, the underprivileged and the workers in the unorganised sector.

APY is administered by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) under the overall administrative and institutional architecture of the National Pension System (NPS). APY is open to all bank account holders in the age group of 18 to 40 years who are not income taxpayers and the contributions differ, based on the pension amount chosen.

Subscribers can make contributions to APY on monthly/quarterly/half-yearly basis. Subscribers would receive the guaranteed minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000 or Rs 2,000 or Rs 3,000 or Rs 4,000 or Rs 5,000 after the age of 60 years, based on the contributions made by the subscriber after joining the scheme.

The monthly pension is available to the subscriber, and after him to his spouse and after their death, the pension corpus, as accumulated at age 60 the subscriber, would be returned to the nominee of the subscriber.

In case of premature death of the subscriber (death before 60 years of age), the spouse of the subscriber can continue the contribution to the APY account of the subscriber, for the remaining vesting period, till the original subscriber would have attained the age of 60 years.

So far, more than 5 crore individuals have subscribed to the APY scheme.