In a bid to provide relief to retired government employees, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the ‘Jeevan Pramaan’ scheme, an Aadhaar-based Digital Life Certificate for pensioners. The scheme was launched to benefit the common man after the push towards self-certification. With this scheme, a pensioner can now digitally provide proof of his existence to authorities for continuity of pension every year instead of presenting himself physically or through a Life Certificate issued by specified authorities.
The Department of Electronics and IT has developed a software application which will enable the recording of the pensioner’s Aadhaar number and biometric details from his mobile device or computer, by plugging in a biometric reading device.
Key details of the pensioner like date, time, and biometric information, will be uploaded to a central database on real-time basis, ultimately enabling the pension disbursing agency to access a Digital Life Certificate. This system will conclusively establish that the pensioner was alive at the time of authentication.
At present, 50 lakh individuals draw pension from the central government. About similar number of retired employees draw pension from State and Union Territory governments. Several PSUs provide pension benefits besides which over 25 lakh retired personnel draw pension from the Armed Forces.
