Govt to hold campaign for promoting submission of digital life certificate

The Centre will conduct a month-long campaign from November 1 to promote submission of digital life certificates (DLCs) by pensioners, according to an official statement issued on Tuesday.

Pensioners have to submit a life certificate every year in the month of November for continuation of pension.

The Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare (DoPPW) will be conducting the third nation-wide digital life certificate campaign which will be held in 800 cities/districts across India from November 1-30, said the statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.

"This year the focus will be on promoting face authentication technology. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will provide full technical support during this campaign," it said.

Face authentication has been made more seamless and convenient for the elderly pensioners, it said.

The India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) will be holding camps at 785 districts through its vast network of 1.8 lakh postmen and Gramin Dak Sewaks, the statement said.

"IPPB provides doorstep DLC services. This facility will be available to all the categories of pensioners across the country irrespective of the fact their pension accounts are in different banks," it added.

In order to avail doorstep service for submission of DLC through IPPB, pensioners can get detailed information on ippbonline.com.

All postmen and Gramin Dak Sewaks are well equipped with mobile phones which will be used for DLC generation through finger biometric and face authentication techniques, the statement said.

Nineteen pension disbursing banks will also hold camps in 150 cities at more than 750 locations.

Visits will be made to the homes/hospitals for aged/disabled/sick pensioners, thus affording them the ease of digitally submitting life certificates, the statement said.

These steps are aimed at ensuring that all pensioners benefit from the campaign and are particularly helpful to the super senior pensioners, it said.

A total of 57 pension welfare associations, registered with DoPPW, will play a crucial role in the campaign by organising camps and also mobilising pensioners for the camps which will be held by IPPB and pension disbursing banks.

This will be the largest ever digital empowerment campaign and seeks to achieve maximum outreach to all the categories of the pensioners, the statement said.

The preparatory phase for the forthcoming campaign has been commenced by holding extensive outreach meetings with all stakeholders. Dedicated DLC portal has been created with mapping of 800 districts, 1,900 camp locations and 1,000 nodal officers, it said.