Union Minister Jitendra Singh launches month-long nationwide digital life certificate campaign

New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh on Wednesday launched a nationwide campaign to promote digital life certificates (DLCs) among pensioners, and said the idea behind the reform was "born out of empathy for the elderly".

The month-long Digital Life Certificate Campaign 4.0 will continue till November 30. More than 21 lakh DLCs have already been generated in the past four days, an official said.

Pensioners are required to submit a life certificate every year to continue receiving their pension. Earlier, these certificates had to be submitted only in physical format, which often caused inconvenience to senior citizens.

In November 2014, an Aadhaar-based system for online submission of digital life certificates, Jeevan Pramaan, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure transparency and ease for pensioners.

Recalling the idea behind the reform, Singh said the digital life certificate initiative was "born out of empathy for the elderly".

"It appeared inhuman to ask senior citizens to physically prove that they are alive to receive their pension," he said, adding that the government turned this challenge into an opportunity by adopting biometric and face authentication technologies for a noble cause.

The minister further said the initiative has not only brought ease of living for pensioners but also encouraged a technology-driven mindset in society.

“This unique experiment in governance is now being studied internationally, with several delegations expressing interest in learning from India’s model,” Singh said.

He credited Prime Minister Modi’s vision of citizen-centric governance for transforming the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare into a people-oriented arm of the government.

Last year’s DLC Campaign 3.0 saw the submission of 52.73 lakh digital life certificates through face authentication, he said.

He added that last year the campaign was conducted in 1,984 locations across 845 districts and cities in November, during which 1.62 crore DLCs were generated, including 49.78 lakh from central government pensioners.

The Personnel Ministry, in a statement, said that of these, over 85,200 were from pensioners aged above 90, while more than 2,200 were from pensioners above 100 years old.

The ongoing Campaign 4.0 covers nearly 2,000 districts, cities and towns through 2,500 camps, coordinated by 1,250 nodal officers, with participation from major banks, India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) and pensioners’ welfare associations, it said.

According to the statement, the initiative adopts a saturation approach to ensure that every pensioner – irrespective of location or mobility constraints – can submit their life certificate seamlessly.

India Post Payments Bank alone is organising camps in more than 1,600 districts and sub-divisions through its network of 1.8 lakh postmen and Gramin Dak Sewaks, offering doorstep DLC services irrespective of the pension-disbursing bank, it added.

Singh said the initiative exemplifies the government’s focus on ease of living and citizen-centric governance, ensuring uninterrupted pension delivery and strengthening India’s transition toward a transparent, efficient and digitally empowered administrative framework. PTI AKV AKV OZ OZ