Bengal records highest number of post office accounts being opened per day
The Bengal government’s Lakshmir Bhandar Scheme has not only benefitted women by facilitating their livelihood but has also given post offices a much-needed boost. The state is now number one in the country based on the number of accounts being opened in post offices per day.
The opening of accounts is also helping many more people to reap the benefits of the organised banking system, and thus bringing them financial stability.
According to India Post officials in the state, women who have started getting their monthly payments from the state government are flocking to post offices to open accounts, as these payments would become a source of regular income. Many of these women are poor and so this scheme was a much-needed step in facilitating their livelihoods.
The officials said that government banks and some private banks are also tapping into this new source of clientele (by opening counters at the Duare Sarkar camps where women are subscribing to Lakshmir Bnandar and other schemes), but since post offices outnumber banks by far in rural areas, the latter have become the biggest beneficiaries across the state.
According to the latest data from India Post (a Central government department), in Bengal, 5,000 accounts are being opened every day now.
Comparably, the number is only 3,500 for Bihar. At the third spot is Uttar Pradesh. And in other big states, like Karnataka, Odisha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and others, the number of accounts being opened in post offices per day is less than even 1,000.
Banking in post offices, which are more numerous and thus, also nearer people’s homes across the state, has another benefit: The Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) allows post office bank account holders to withdraw money from their savings accounts in banks at the post offices themselves, thus doing away with the need to travel longer distances to banks.
