Beyond Account Opening: Usage, Dormancy and Account Depth under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana in the NCR States

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has opened over 59 crore bank accounts since its launch in 2014.With account ownership in India now near-universal, the more pertinent question is whether these accounts are actually being used.In this paper, the usage of PMJDY accounts has been examined in the four states constituting the National Capital Region (NCR), namely, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.Cross-sectional data on all the 36 States/UTs, drawn from the PMJDY portal (October 2026), have been analysed along with the official data on inoperative accounts.The results of the Ordinary Least Squares regression with robust standard errors reveal that, after controlling for per capita income and urbanisation, the average balance in PMJDY accounts is 31-48 per cent higher in the NCR states than in the other States/UTs.RuPay card coverage is also significantly higher in the NCR states (Mann-Whitney U, p = 0.033).At the same time, dormancy has risen nationally to about 26 per cent of accounts, and an account in Uttar Pradesh is 23 per cent more likely to be inoperative than an account in the rest of India.Thus, the NCR combines deeper usage of the active accounts with a large stock of unused ones.Recommendations are made for the routine publication of usage and dormancy data, and for activation strategies aimed at urban and migrant account holders.