Over Rs 1.5 Lakh Crore of Govt, Welfare, Charitable Funds Locked Unclaimed in RBI’s DEAF

When the finance ministry launched its second nationwide campaign to help citizens recover staggering amounts of unclaimed deposits, the message was simple: We will help you trace your money.

After the 100 Days–100 Pays campaign of 2023 turned out to be a damp squib, the ministry launched another one on October 25, this time incentivising banks with a fee to locate rightful claimants. Would it work? I asked in my column on October 10. The answer is shocking.

Vanished Public Funds: Zero Accountability

Soon after the latest campaign began, a banker was alarmed by an internal WhatsApp message listing the ‘Top 50 DEAF (depositor education and awareness fund) accounts’ in one region. One of the largest unclaimed deposit turned out to belong to a government fund with a balance in crores of rupees. Digging into the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) UDGAM portal, he uncovered a massive systemic failure — which he shared with us anonymously.

Using simple keywords like 'fund', 'yojana', 'rural', or 'pradhanmantri' and selecting non-individual accounts, he uncovered astonishing results in State Bank of India (SBI) alone. With help from a mathematics professor and his team, we, at Moneylife, further traced 134 accounts across a few more cities at SBI and Bank of Baroda (BoB). A deeper search is impossible, unless the RBI allows broader access or itself undertakes the work.

Welfare Funds That Went Missing

Our findings show that money meant for public welfare, employment generation, and community development has been treated with astonishing callousness. Our small search shows hundreds of government-linked accounts, with crores of rupees in them, lie forgotten with banks. Many have misspelled or mangled names, suggesting that they were opened with zero oversight. No one seems to have bothered to verify whether these accounts were genuine; whether the funds reached the intended beneficiaries; or should have returned to the government for reallocation. They simply remain with the banks, dormant and unaccounted for. Shockingly, we even found military funds in our search at SBI and BoB. Here is a small sample.

1. National Culture Fund, Janpath, SBI, New Delhi.

2. Multiple Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) accounts linked to Delhi hospitals and the ESIC headquarters, including ESI Fund Account No.1 and ESI Savings Fund Account No.2 at SBI, New Delhi.

3. Two Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) accounts at Bhavishya Nidhi Bhavan, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi.

4. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Chief Engineer’s Office, Public Works Department, Panaji, Goa (SBI).

5. Rashtriya Gramin Guarantee Rojgar Yojana, PanchayatrajJarkha, Dinapur, Bihar (two accounts, SBI).

6. Several Jawahar Rozgar Yojana accounts in Bihar, with differing addresses.

7. Gram Panchayat Raj Singhada Mukhayamantri Gramodaya Yojna, Axis Bank, Patna, Bihar along with several other Gram Panchayat funds in other Aurangabad, Nagpur, etc, in SBI Maharashtra.

8. LIC Mutual Fund – Dhan 80CC Account, Maharashtra (BoB).

9. Prime Minister Gramodaya Yojana, Indian Bank.

10. Prime Minister Rojgar Gramin Yojana, Patna, Bihar.

11. Mulbhut Suvidha Yojana, Nashik, SBI.

12. Salokha Yojana Jatiya, Kandivili, Mumbai, SBI.

13. Yashwant Gram Samriddhi Yojana, Bhandara, SBI.

14. Indira Awas Yojana, Dhule and Pune (SBI) – appearing with spelling variations.

15. Manav Kalyan Bachat Yojana, New Delhi, SBI.

16. Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, Belapur, Navi Mumbai (SBI).

17. Chief Minister’s Fund, Home Department, Mantralaya, Maharashtra (SBI).

18. Child and Adolescent Labour Rehabilitation Fund, Amravati (SBI).

19. Dalit Wasti Sudharana Fund, Nagpur (BoB).

20. Watershed Development Fund (Corpus), Panvel (BOB).

21. UMC Salary Reserve Fund, Ulhasnagar Municipal Council, Thane–Bhiwandi (SBI).

22. UMC Dry Latrine Conversion Fund, Ulhasnagar (SBI).

23. YojnaRojgar Jawahar, Thane (SBI).

24. Four accounts listed simply as ‘Yojana’ or ‘Yojana Yojana’ at SBI Delhi branches — two flagged ‘KYC to be obtained’.

25. Yashwant Gram Sammruddhi Yojana appears five times, with spelling variants, across SBI branches in Bhandara, Jalgaon, Latur, Nagpur and Aurangabad.

26. Numerous other Gram Panchayat and Gramin Yojana accounts have also been left unclaimed.

27. Even Armed Forces Flag Day and Service Regimental Fund (Khadkwasala Tal, Pune, SBI) accounts lie dormant.

The sloppy spellings and duplicate entries raise troubling questions: Are these genuine government accounts, or ‘look-alike’ names created by careless or complicit bankers? Either way, they warrant a forensic investigation.

BoB has two accounts titled ‘Diwali Fund’, one labelled ‘staff’ – a name that should never have cleared compliance checks. There is also an SBBJ (State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur) Diwali Fund at SBI and RMO Diwali Fund at Bank of Maharashtra, Nasik; the same Bank maintains an account called ‘Welfare Fund’ in Akola with no identifiable beneficiary.

Even regulated and audited entities are on this list. The LIC Mutual Fund – Dhan 80CC Account (BoB) – which comes under supervision of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) – appears as an unclaimed deposit. There’s an Advocates Bar Development Fund (BoB) and an Aid Fund for Polytechnic Students at SBI Yavatmal whose name is garbled beyond recognition.

Most shockingly, the EPFO and ESIC funds, which are among the country’s largest welfare bodies, regularly audited by the comptroller and auditor general (CAG), have slipped into DEAF. How did even these active institutions, along with military funds, remain untouched for over a decade before being quietly transferred to RBI’s DEAF?

Vanished Money of Employees & Charities

The tragedy extends to private trusts, foundations and charities, including church and employee funds. Perhaps, many remain unclaimed not because they are forgotten, but because rigid rules and bureaucratic hurdles make recovery near-impossible.

The data reveals something deeply unsettling: dozens of charitable entities, foundations, trusts, temples, churches and missions, have lost access to their own funds, now frozen with RBI’s DEAF. Our team dug up 46; but there will be thousands more. Here are a few examples.

Mulji Valji Foundation, Somaiya Chambers, Mumbai, BoB (two accounts).
Pratyush Foundation (International AIDS Research), Anand Bhavan, Mumbai – BoB.
Heritage Foundation, Mahale Road, Mumbai, BoB.
Manav Foundation, near Hergon Chem, Mumbai, BoB.
BR Ruia Foundation Trust, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai, BoB.
Sulochanaben Shah Foundation and Shardaben Shah Foundation, Rasta Peth, Pune, BoB.
Universal Foundation, Shirodkar Complex, Kolhapur, BoB.
Matrusparsh Foundation, Jalgaon, BoB.
Bodhisatwa Foundation, Panchsheel Nagar, Nagpur, BoB.
Swaraj Foundation, Hupari, Maharashtra, BoB.

These are only a fraction of the accounts dumped into DEAF and signal a collapse of financial discipline and public accountability. If flagship welfare schemes can’t track their own money, what hope do ordinary citizens have?

UDGAM: Designed To Defeat Discovery

RBI’s much-touted UDGAM portal was meant empower people to track lost deposits transferred to its DEAF after a decade of lying dormant at various banks. Instead, it is an obstacle course that could frustrate even the most determined user.

Remember, unclaimed deposits with RBI’s DEAF had hit Rs 78,213 crore by March 2024; another Rs 1 lakh crore was lying in inoperative accounts in 2023 (which did not include SBI) waiting to be transferred to DEAF after 10 years.

Even a peek at UDGAM requires a registration process that demands a mobile number for a two-factor process requiring OTP, captcha and password and a declaration that you are seeking information for personal use.

Then, users must input the exact account name and a valid ID (PAN, voter ID, or driving licence) — impossible for accounts from decades ago when such IDs didn’t exist and were not mandatory – in fact, many Indians with bank accounts did not own cars or have a driving licence. Even if you persist, the system times out repeatedly in the middle of a search; worse, it blocks you for a day after six or seven logins.

Our repeated requests for a simple Boolean search have been ignored. RBI fears that easier access might enable fraud; but this logic collapses when even government entities’ accounts lie forgotten.

The Real Issue: Accountability

If a small group of volunteers can trace over 130 dormant government and private accounts, why should banks be paid incentives to do their job?

Every question leads to one conclusion: A systemic breakdown of accountability that has allowed banks to turn DEAF into a dumping ground, with RBI designing a system to hide it all.

The scale and spread of unclaimed funds across government schemes, foundations, trusts, military and religious institutions point to deep systemic rot of humongous proportions – at least over Rs1.5 lakh crore. Only a full-scale investigation by the central bureau of investigation (CBI) can uncover how so much public money was allowed to vanish into silence.

Data Collated from RBI's UDGAM Database by Moneylife Foundation

(We hold reference numbers for all the accounts mentioned here and more, for organisations seeking to claim their funds.)

This piece first appeared on Moneylife and has been republished with permission.

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