Overall, enrolments under Atal Pension Yojana (APY) have crossed 3.30 crore as on 25th August 2021.During the fiscal year 2020-21, more than 79 lakh new Atal Pension Yojana (APY) subscribers joined, bringing the total number of APY subscribers to over 3.02 crore as of March 31, 2021.
The authority which looks after the pension and funds, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority(PFRDA) says, "the rate of enrolment has been encouraging, especially in the second half of 2020-21, when it took less than six months to enroll 50 lakh, new APY subscribers, bringing the total number of APY subscribers to 3 crores from 2.5 crores,"
Among others, SBI sourced up to 28% of the 79.14 lakh new additions during 2020-21, equivalent to 22.07 lakh subscribers, followed by Canara Bank and Indian Bank, which sourced 5.89 lakh and 5.17 lakh subscribers, respectively.
Moreover, the preference for a Rs 1000 pension plan has substantially increased over the past six months. Of the total enrolments, nearly 78% of APY subscribers chose the Rs 1,000 pension plan, while around 14% chose the Rs 5,000 pension plan as of August 25, 2021.
Furthermore, approximately 44% of new subscribers are female, and approximately 44% of new subscribers are very young, between the ages of 18 and 25.
Looking at the state-wise pan-out of the scheme, as of March 31, 2021, over 20 lakh APY subscribers had been enrolled in 5 states. Uttar Pradesh topped the poll with 45.4 lakh APY enrolments, Bihar came in second with 28.22 lakh, followed by West Bengal with 23.92 lakh, Maharashtra came with 23.17 lakh, and Tamil Nadu came with 22.57 lakh cumulative APY enrolments.
With the increased participation of female subscribers, the gender gap has tailed off to some extent. Between 2016 and 2021, the percentage of female subscribers increased from 37% to 44%.
Furthermore, the age profile of APY subscribers also suggests a trend of younger enrolment. More than 43% of subscribers enrolled on March 31, 2021, were between the ages of 18 and 25, up from 29% on March 31, 2016.
PFRDA has recently taken new initiatives for the better outreach of the APY scheme. The initiatives are- addition of new features in the APY mobile App and its availability on the Umang platform, the updating of APY FAQs, the issuance of the APY Subscriber Information Brochure, and the APY Citizen Charter in 13 regional languages to broaden the reach of the APY Scheme and to benefit existing and potential APY subscribers as well as APY service providers.