The central government is rolling out a comprehensive, nationwide digital life certificate (DLC) campaign for pensioners, scheduled to run from November 1st to November 30th. This initiative will span across 2,000 districts and sub-divisional headquarters throughout India, as announced in an official statement. The campaign is a collaborative effort involving 19 pension disbursing banks, India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), Pensioners’ Welfare Associations, the Controller General of Defence Accounts, the Department of Telecommunications, Railways, the Unique Identification Authority of India, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The primary goal is to ensure that every pensioner, regardless of their location, can easily access this essential service.
This marks the fourth annual campaign organized by the Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare. This year, IPPB will play a significant role, conducting DLC camps in every district. Leveraging their extensive network of 1.8 lakh postmen and Gramin Dak Sewaks, IPPB will offer doorstep DLC services to all pensioners, irrespective of which bank they use. Pensioners can find more details on this service at ippbonline.com.
IPPB staff are equipped with mobile devices capable of generating DLCs using both fingerprint and face authentication technology. Furthermore, 19 pension disbursing banks will establish camps in over 300 cities. These banks will also conduct home visits for pensioners who are aged, disabled, or unwell, ensuring accessibility. An additional 57 registered Pensioners’ Welfare Associations will actively assist in encouraging pensioner participation and organizing camps in coordination with the banks and IPPB.
It’s important for pensioners to submit their life certificate annually in November to ensure the continuation of their pension. To facilitate this, banks and IPPB will jointly launch a widespread awareness campaign using SMS, WhatsApp, social media, banners, and local media to inform pensioners about the available DLC submission options.
The upcoming DLC campaign, dubbed ‘DLC Campaign 4.0’, is set to be the largest outreach effort for pensioners to date. It aims to generate 2 crore DLCs, with a strong focus on utilizing face authentication technology to ensure universal coverage and enhance the ease of living for pensioners across the nation. In the previous campaign, ‘DLC Campaign 3.0’, a record 1.62 crore DLCs were successfully generated, with over 50 lakh of these utilizing face authentication technology. This was achieved through nearly 1,900 camps held in 800 districts and cities, thanks to the strong cooperation of banks, IPPB, central ministries, and welfare associations.