New Delhi, June 8 : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday highlighted that in the last 11 years, women have emerged as key drivers of progress in the country, with the Narendra Modi government launching various schemes to empower Nari Shakti.

Highlighting “11 years of Sashakt Nari”, the Finance Minister said that under the PM Jan Dhan Yojna, the world’s largest financial inclusion scheme, 55.7 per cent of accounts were held by women, which reflected their empowerment at the grassroots level.

She further pointed out that women now account for 68 per cent of the MUDRA loan beneficiaries nationwide. These loans have enabled lakhs of women to become entrepreneurs and pursue their dreams independently.

Apart from this, 74 per cent of those getting benefits under the Start-Up India entrepreneurs scheme are also women. Besides, 73 per cent of houses under the PMAY (Gramin) scheme for the poor are owned by women, she said.

The Finance Minister also mentioned that 10 crore LPG connections have been given to poor women under the Ujjwala Yojana. These have come as a big boon for them, making their life easier with accompanying health benefits. They have been freed from the harmful smoke of wood and other fuels, such as cow dung, that were used for cooking earlier.

The Jan Dhan scheme has been a huge success in financial inclusion, as the average bank balance per account in March 2015 was Rs 1,065, which has now increased to Rs 4,352. Around 80 per cent of the accounts are active, she added.

As many as 66.6 per cent of Jan Dhan accounts have been opened in rural and semi-urban areas, and 29.56 crore (55.7 per cent) belong to women account holders.

These accounts are used on a large scale. People are also depositing money in them. However, this scheme allows zero balance accounts, and only 8.4 per cent of the accounts have zero balance.

When the Modi government first came to power about 10 years ago, it set a target of providing financial and banking services to every citizen. For this, zero balance bank accounts were opened in the banks for the poorest of the poor under ‘Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojana’ launched on August 28, 2014.