Campaign to promote submission of digital life certificate launched by Govt

A similar campaign will now be held from November 1 to 30, 2023 in 100 cities across the country, targeting 5 mn pensioners

The Centre will launch a mega campaign in November to promote the submission of digital life certificate by pensioners, an official statement issued on Wednesday said.

Submission of life certificates is an important activity to be carried out by pensioners every year in the month of November (with a special provision for pensioners aged 80 years and above to submit them in October) to ensure the continuity of their pension.

To enhance the ease of living' of central government pensioners, the Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare (DoPPW) has been promoting digital life certificate (DLC) i.e. Jeevan Pramaan' extensively, it said.

"With a view to spread awareness amongst all the central government pensioners as well as the pension disbursing authorities for the use of DLC/face authentication technology to submit digital life certificates, DoPPW launched a nationwide campaign in November 2022 in 37 cities throughout the country. The campaign was a huge success with more than 35 lakh DLCs of central government pensioners issued," said the statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.

A similar campaign will now be held from November 1 to 30, 2023 in 100 cities across the country, targeting 50 lakh pensioners, it said.

To ensure the success of the campaign, so that the benefit of digital modes of life certificate submission reaches pensioners in the remotest corners of the country and also benefits super senior/sick /incapacitated pensioners, a comprehensive circular with detailed guidelines has been issued defining roles and responsibilities of all the stakeholders which includes ministries/ departments of the government of India, pension disbursing banks and pensioners' associations, the statement said.

These guidelines include nomination of nodal officers by the stakeholders, for the campaign, spreading awareness/providing due publicity to DLC-face authentication technique through banners/posters placed strategically in offices and bank branches/ ATMs and equipping dedicated staff at bank branches with an Android phone to use this technology when pensioners visit the branch for submission of life certificate, it said.

The guidelines also mention holding camps to enable pensioners to submit their DLCs without delay and home visits in case of bedridden pensioners, the statement said.

"In addition, pensioners' welfare associations have been sensitised to hold camps for pensioners for DLC submission. Teams from the department will also be visiting various locations throughout the country to assist pensioners in the use of various digital modes to submit their life certificates. Due publicity will be given through social media using Twitter, Facebook and videos on YouTube," it added.

As per the face authentication facility, the identity of a person is established through the face recognition technique and DLC gets generated.

This breakthrough technology, launched in November 2021, reduced the dependence of pensioners on external biometric devices and made the process more accessible and affordable to masses by leveraging smartphone-based technology," the statement said.