The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maandhan Yojana (PM-KMY), a Central Sector Scheme (CSS) which provide social security to all landholding Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs) across the country, has completed 5 years of successful implementation.
- PM-KMY was launched on 12th September, 2019 by the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi at Ranchi, Jharkhand.
- The scheme is being administered by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) in partnership with Mumbai(Maharashtra) based Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).
Key Features of PM-KMY:
i.PM-KMY is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme for SMFs which aims to ensure better income for farmers of the country after they reach their old age.
ii.All eligible SMFs are required to contribute an amount between Rs 55 to Rs 200 per month in the Pension Fund till they attain the age of 60.
iii.Under the PM-KMY, eligible SMFs receives a fixed monthly pension of Rs 3,000 after attaining the age of 60 years, provided they meet the exclusion criteria of the scheme.
iv.SMFs who are enrolled in this scheme, will avail the benefits of the scheme only when they have contributed for minimum 20 years and maximum 42 years to the pension fund of the scheme.
v.LIC is pension fund manager of the scheme and beneficiary registration is facilitated through the Common Service Center (CSC) or by the Nodal Officer (PM-Kisan) appointed by the State or Union Territory (UT) Governments.
Eligibility Criteria:
i.All SMFs with cultivable land holdings of maximum 2 hectares (ha) and listed in state/UT land records as of 1st August, 2019 are eligible to avail the benefits of the scheme.
ii.Those SMFs who are between the age of 18 to 40 years, eligible to join the scheme.
iii.Spouses of the SMFs are also eligible to join the scheme separately and are required to make separate contributions to the pension fund of scheme in order to get the fixed monthly pension of Rs 3,000 until they attain the age of 60.
Key Benefits:
i.Family Pension: If a subscriber to the scheme passes away after the retirement date, the spouse is entitled to receive 50% of the pension i.e. Rs 1,500 per month as a family pension subject to the condition that the spouse is not already a beneficiary of the scheme.
- Case1: If a subscriber to the scheme passes away before the retirement date, and spouse does not wish to continue, the total contribution made by the farmer along with interest will paid to the spouse.
- Case 2: If a subscriber to the scheme passes away before the retirement date and there is no spouse, then the total contribution made by the farmer along with interest will paid to the Nominee.
ii.PM-KISAN Benefit: If eligible SMFs are registered under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Yojana, then, they can choose to use the benefits of PM-KISAN scheme to make voluntary contributions to the PM-KMY scheme.
- So, eligible SMFs are required to sign and submit an enrolment-cum-auto-debit-mandate form. Thus, contributions required for the scheme will be automatically debit from the bank account where their PM-KISAN benefits are credited.
iii.Equal Contribution by Government of India (GoI): The GoI through, the Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DoAC&FW) makes an equal contribution of the same amount as contributed by the eligible subscriber, to the Pension Fund.
iv.Monthly Contributions: A monthly contribution to the scheme is determined according to the age of the farmer at the time of entry into the scheme.
Exit Criteria for the Scheme:
i.The beneficiary of the scheme has option to voluntarily exit the scheme only after a minimum period of 5 years of regular contributions, and then the entire contribution will be returned by LIC with an interest rate equivalent to prevailing savings bank rates.
ii.In case subscriber and spouse both dies, the remaining corpus will be returned to the fund.
Key Facts:
i.According to the MoA&FW data, a total of 23.38 lakh farmers have joined the PM-KMY as of 6th August, 2024.
ii.Bihar with over 3.4 lakh registrations, ranked 1st among top 10 states with maximum registrations of subscribers to PM-KMY, followed by Jharkhand (2.5 lakh registrations), Uttar Pradesh (UP) (with over 2 lakh registrations) ranked at 2nd and 3rd position respectively.
About Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW):
Union Minister- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Constituency- Madhya Pradesh, MP)
Minister of State (MoS) – Ram Nath Thakur (Rajya Sabha- Bihar); Bhagirath Choudhary (Constituency- Ajmer, Rajasthan)
