New Delhi, Dec 07: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Space and Atomic Energy Dr Jitendra Singh on Thursday updated the Rajya Sabha about the “Digital Life Certificate” (DLC) for pensioners and the nationwide campaign undertaken to for its awareness and use.
In reply to a question, the minister said, “The Digital Life Certificate was introduced soon after Narendra Modi assumed office as Prime Minister in 2014. It was inspired by the conviction that it was neither feasible nor humane to expect every elderly pensioner to reach out to a Doctor and procure his certificate of being alive every year. Therefore, through the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW), the technique of Biometric technology was adopted to generate Digital Life Certificates with ease and convenience for pensioners.”
It is pertinent to mention that sometime back, it was observed that fingerprints and biometrics may not be reliable after certain old age and therefore, the DoPPW was quick to introduce a Face Recognition Technology (FRT), wherein a pensioner could use a Mobile App, which used face’s photographic impression to generate Digital Life Certificate in less than a minute.
Dr Singh said the number of Digital Life Certificates generated every year is as follows respectively: 2014-15: 109751,2015-16: 1315150, 2016-17: 5058451,2017-18: 9901542, 2018-19: 8994834, 2019-2020: 9965509, 2020-2021: 9897459, 2021-2022: 11191451, 2022-2023: 11310388.
To make the scheme more accessible to the pensioners, the union minister said several steps were taken. “Due publicity is given through Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Social Media using tweets, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and short films on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, both in English and in Hindi. A new mode of submission of DLC through the Face Authentication Technique using mobile phones was launched,” he said.
Nation-wide DLC Campaign was conducted in November 2022 in coordination with Banks, Pensioners’ Welfare Associations and Ministries/ Departments where Camps were organized for pensioners to submit DLC. Support from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) & Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) was also taken in this regard.
During November 2023, the Department organized a nationwide Digital Life Certificate Campaign 2.0 covering 500 locations in 100 cities through Pension disbursing banks, Ministries/ Departments, UIDAI and MeitY. Such dedicated campaigns have enabled pensioners to submit their life certificates seamlessly and from the comforts of their homes, he said.
Pensioners’ Awareness Programmes, Bankers’ Awareness Programmes and Pre-Retirement counselling are held on a regular basis, physically as well as online to familiarise and popularise DLCs, in particular the Face Authentication Technique.
