FM Highlights Women's Participation as APY Enrolments Grow

By: WE Staff | Tuesday, 2 December 2025

• Gross enrolment under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has reached 8.34 crore as of October 31
• The information was shared by FM Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament on Monday
• It is open to all Indian citizens, aged 18 to 40 years, with a savings account in a bank or post office

Gross enrolment under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a scheme aimed at establishing a universal social security system for all citizens with a focus on poor, underprivileged, and workers in the unorganised sector, reached 8,34,13,738 as of October 31, the Parliament was informed on Monday.

APY, which was launched in 2015, aims at offering social security cover to all citizens of India. Under the scheme, citizens of age groups between 18 and 40 years are allowed to subscribe, provided they have a savings account in either a bank or a post office. The subscribers start getting pension benefits once they attain 60 years of age.

Since the benefits begin only after subscribers attain the age of 60, the pension disbursal under APY is set to begin from 2035 and onwards, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman replied in a written response to the Lok Sabha. She also informed that the gross enrolment under APY stood at 8.34 crore as of October 31, 2025.

The scheme also has female participation of 4, 04, 41,135, accounting for 48 percent of total enrolments under APY. In Bihar, the state's female enrolment is 42, 07,233, which is 57 percent of total APY enrolment for the state.

As many as 7,153 bank branches and 461 post office branches in Bihar are actively enrolling citizens into APY as of October 31, 2025, the Finance Minister added.

Several initiatives have been rolled out by the government and PFRDA for increasing awareness and expanding reach of APY across the country, including in rural and remote areas of Bihar.

These include periodic advertisements; APY information brochures in 13 regional languages; and virtual capacity-building programmes for Banking Correspondents, bank field staff, Self Help Group members and bank-sakhis under the State Rural Livelihoods Missions.