New Delhi: A significant, well designed push to unlock dormant citizen assets will come to an end in a few weeks that has helped unclaimed funds being recovered and turned into sustained financial empowerment for beneficiaries.
The campaign, ‘Your Money, Your Right’, is a three month national drive launched on October 4 to help citizens reclaim unclaimed financial assets.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a recent social media post, has reiterated his call to citizens to join in building a transparent, financially empowered and inclusive India.
According to PM Modi, Indian banks are holding Rs 78,000 crores of unclaimed money belonging to our own citizens, while insurance companies have nearly Rs 14,000 crore.
Mutual fund companies, he added, have around Rs 3,000 crore and dividends worth Rs 9,000 crore also remain unclaimed.
“These facts have startled a lot of people,” he shared.
The campaign was launched to help citizens reclaim unclaimed financial assets estimated at more than Rs 1 lakh crore.
It combines awareness, accessibility, and action through district camps and regulator platforms to return dormant bank deposits, insurance proceeds, dividends, mutual funds and pensions to rightful owners.
The initiative is framed around a “3A model” — awareness, accessibility, and action — and uses existing digital platforms and regulator schemes to trace and settle claims.
Since launch, till December 5, camps have been held in 477 districts with participation of public representatives, district administration and officials from financial institutions.
To maximise outreach during the campaign, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and awareness material in major regional languages — along with short video messages — have been widely disseminated.
District-level camps are organised with on-ground digital demonstrations, helpdesks, and guided support to simplify the claims process.
The campaign entails collaborative participation of all major financial sector fund regulators — the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA).
Existing platforms such as RBI’s UDGAM (for unclaimed bank deposits), IRDAI’s Bima Bharosa (for unclaimed insurance proceeds) and SEBI’s MITRA (for unclaimed mutual funds) have empowered citizens to trace their unclaimed assets more efficiently.
Significantly, during the first two months of the campaign, funds amounting to about Rs 2,000 crore have been already been claimed by rightful owners.
Thus, citizens can recover dormant savings, insurance payouts, unpaid dividends and pension amounts that can materially improve household liquidity and welfare.
Provision of centralised tracing and verification reduce the risk of misappropriation and empower claimants with formal recourse.
Meanwhile, camps and assisted digital searches help digitally marginalised citizens access entitlements and link recovered assets to active accounts or new financial products.
Additionally, harmonised SOPs and inter regulatory coordination shorten claim timelines and lower procedural friction for claimants.
The aim of the campaign, as PM Modi has said, is to ensure every citizen can reclaim what is rightfully his or hers.
“Afterall, these assets represent the hard-earned savings and investments of countless families,” he added.
(IANS)
