A Majority of India’s Poor Women May Miss COVID-19 PMJDY Cash Transfers

The Indian government has rolled out an emergency COVID-19 relief cash transfer program that will send Rs 500 per month from April-June 2020 to women via PMJDY accounts. PMJDY is a program launched as a National Mission in August 2014 to provide universal banking services to every unbanked adult.

This brief combines government reports of PMJDY ownership and data from the nationally representative 2018 Financial Inclusion Insights (FII) Survey to:

• Identify what fraction of food-insecure, poor women are likely excluded from PMJDY-based cash transfers.
• Assess the scope for food transfers to fill the coverage gaps left by cash transfers.