Department of Pension & Pensioners Welfare (DoP&PW) is possibly one of the first departments in the Govt sector to have started using the latest "Face Recognition Technology" for establishing Aadhar based identification of elderly pensioners to generate "Digital Life Certificate".

Disclosing this today while addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Government led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is known to make optimum use of technology towards bringing about Ease of Living and Dignity for the Elderly.

The Minister also briefed the media about the progress of the Digital Life Certificate (DLC) Campaign 2.0 of the DoP&PW.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that the Banks are providing doorstep service for submission of Digital Life Certificates (DLC) annually to retired employees. Due to such technologies, the senior citizens do not have to go through the tedious process of submitting the life certificate. Most of the functioning has been converted online and in order to bring in transparency, accountability and citizen participation, the human interface has been reduced to the bare minimum, he said.

The DLC Campaign 2.0 sought to Improve Pensioners Welfare, Digital Life Certificate (Jeevan Pramaan), through use of Biometric and Iris based on Aadhar database and the face authentication technology. In 2021, the DoP&PW had adopted Face Authentication Technology for generation of DLCs using Android Mobiles.

“This was a huge step towards enhancing Ease of Living of pensioners as they could now also submit Life Certificates through digital modes from the comfort of their home, instead of only in the traditional mode of physical Life Certificates by visiting Banks and Post Offices,” he said.

Under the DLC Campaign 2.0, DoP&PW collaborated with Pension Disbursing Banks, Ministries/ Departments, Pensioners’ Welfare Associations, UIDAI, MeitY from November 1-30, 2023. The DLC Campaign was conducted at 597 locations in 100 cities across India. 297 Nodal Officers from Pension Disbursing Banks, 44 Pensioner Welfare Associations worked assiduously to successfully implement the DLC Campaign 2.0.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that as a result of the Campaign, a total of more than 1.17 crore DLCs across pensioners of all categories have been generated in the month of November, 2023, out of which, the number of DLCs generated using Face Authentication Technique is more than 19.52 lakh.

“Of this, a total of 38.99 lakh Central Government Pensioners generated DLCs, out of which, the number of face authenticated DLCs is 9.76 lakh,” he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, more than 24,000 pensioners above the age of 90 years used digital mode to submit Life Certificate for drawal of pension.

As per the dedicated DLC Portal created by the Department, the leading States for DLC generation are Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, having generated 5.07 lakh, 4.55 lakh and 2.65 lakh DLCs respectively. The leading Banks for DLC generation are State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank which are also the leading Pension Disbursing Banks, with 7.68 lakh and 2.38 lakh DLCs respectively.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Modi Government has also done away with about 2,000 obsolete or redundant rules towards bringing about Ease of Living for all citizens.

“Pension has been enabled without service duration bar of 10 years and divorcee daughters are also now enabled to receive family pension,” he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, several steps have been taken for realising Prime Minister Modi’s vision for improving pensioners’ welfare with far-reaching Pension Reforms by notification of Pension Rules and Digital Empowerment of Pensioners.

“This includes the BHAVISHYA portal for timely processing and sanction of Pension cases, DIRGHAYU app for timely pension payments, Integrated Pensioner Portal for improved coordination with Banks and CPENGRAMS grievance portal for timely redressal of Pensioner Grievances, ANUBHAV Awards for documenting administrative experiences, Pension Adalats are being periodically organised and Pre-Retirement Counselling Workshops are being held every quarter,” he said.

In his address, Secretary, DoP&PW Shri V. Srinivas, said the nationwide DLC Campaign 2.0 represents a significant milestone in the initiatives taken by the Department towards ensuring Ease of Living of pensioners.

To ensure that the benefit of using digital modes for Life Certificate submission reaches pensioners in all parts of the country, State capitals and major cities were among the 100 cities where camps were held at multiple locations, which included Delhi, Visakhapatnam, Guwahati, Patna, Raipur, Goa, Ahmedabad, Shimla, Ranchi, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhopal, Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar, Ludhiana, Ajmer, Gangtok, Chennai, Hyderabad, Tripura, Lucknow and Dehradun amongst others. With a view to technologically empowering the pensioners, in addition to generating their DLCs, the process was also explained to them for future use.

In the camps held by Pension Disbursing Banks and Pensioners’ Welfare Associations, as well as in their visits to the homes/ hospitals to assist aged/ sick pensioners, several success stories emerged, relating the satisfaction and comfort of the pensioners at the outreach to them.

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SNC/PK