Who is "Bank Mitra" and how does it work.

 

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was launched by Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on August 28, 2014. Its main objective was to provide financial inclusion in India i.e. to provide banking facility to every citizen of India. To give further impetus to this work, the government has selected a person named Bank Mitra (Business Correspondent) for the rural area to help the rural people. This person will help the people of rural areas in works like withdrawing money, depositing, opening accounts, making drafts, and also taking a commission from the bank in exchange for their services. In this way, a lot of money is being earned by many youths by becoming Bank Mitra.

 

Who is a Bank Mitra?

 

It is a person who goes to rural places and helps the people of the village in banking operations, instead of which he gets commission from banks. In this way, this person can earn from 25000 rupees to 30000 rupees every month. The Ministry of Finance started making Bank Mitra. Accordingly, the whole of India is divided into 20 parts. In this, a particular area is assigned to one Bank Mitra but he can work for any government bank or private bank.

 

Why was there a need to create a Bank Mitra?

 

As most know, there are about 6 lakh villages in India and there is a large part of the population which is either ignorant of the banking sector or is illiterate. In these conditions, the villagers cannot withdraw money from the banks and if they need to withdraw, they have to go 10 or 20 km away from the village. Some people do not even have to fill their money depositing or withdrawal form, in such situations, they have to remain dependent on others and sometimes they also become victims of fraud. So to solve all these problems, the government has selected a person named Bank Mitra (Business Correspondent) to help these rural people. This person works for all government banks.

 

Bank Mitra performs the following types of functions for all banks, which include the opening of savings account, recurring deposit account and fixed account, deposit and withdrawal of cash, loan, making farmer credit, sale of insurance products and mutual fund products, the opening of pension accounts, overdraft service.

 

Bank Mitra has a mobile which has internet through which he gives cash to the villager by authenticating the villager through thumb impression or electronic signature. Bank Mitra takes his commission from the concerned bank in exchange for his work. This directly means connecting the village people with the banking sector without any hassle.

 

Bank Mitra can become all of the following, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Self Help Groups (SHGs), Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), Post Offices, Insurance Agents, Panchayats, Civil Society Organizations, Farmers Organizations, Farmers' Clubs, Community-based organizations, cooperative societies, rural knowledge centres, agricultural trade centres, agricultural science centres, khadi and village industries units.