How Digital Life Certificate has made life easy for pensioners

There can be no bigger boon for the elderly than the Digital Life Certificate (DLC) scheme introduced by the Indian government. The scheme, popularly known by its Hindi name, Jeevan Pramaan, is literally a life saver for Central Government or State Government pensioners and their spouses.

Before its introduction, all pensioners had to provide life certificates to the authorized pension disbursing agencies like Banks, Post offices, Government Treasuries etc., following which their pension was credited to their account.

In order to get this life certificate, the pensioners were required to either personally present themselves before the Pension Disbursing Agency or have the Life Certificate issued by the authority / organisation where they had served and ensure its delivery to the Pension Disbursing Agency.

All pensioners had to go through this ritual happened every year in the month of November. It caused a lot of hardship and unnecessary inconvenience particularly for the aged and infirm pensioners, some of whom could not even walk.

Says 75-year -old Avadhesh Prasad, a UP Government pensioner, “I have seen old women being brought to the treasury in wheelchairs or even carried physically so that their signatures or thumb impressions could be certified.”

Jeevan Pramaan has done away with this suffering. The entire process has been digitised and the pensioners can use a biometric device to prove that they are alive from the comfort of their homes.

The official Jeevan Pramaan website states that India has more than one crore families who can be classified as “pensioner families”. Of this, 50 Lakh pensioners belong to the Central Government and the remaining 50 lakhs to the state government and Union territories. Besides this, over 25 lakh retired defence personnel get pension.

How it Works

Jeevan Pramaan uses the Aadhaar platform for biometric authentication of the pensioner. The process starts with the pensioner downloading the PC / Mobile Application and providing his Aadhaar number, Pension Payment Order, Bank Name and Bank Account number and Mobile number.

The pensioner also needs to purchase a biometric device which costs around Rs 4,000 and whose specifications are available on the Jeevan Praman website.

The pensioner can use the biometric device to authenticate his thumb or finger imprint. A successful authentication generates the Digital Life Certificate, establishing that the pensioner is alive.

The pensioner receives an SMS acknowledgement that gives the Jeevan Pramaan Certificate ID. After this, the pensioner can download a PDF copy of the certificate from the Jeevan Pramaan website using the Jeevan Pramaan ID.

Simultaneously, the Digital Life Certificate is transferred to the Life Certificate Repository. The Pension Disbursing Agencies take note of this, and greenlights the continued disbursal of pension.

Pensioners can also visit the Jeevan Pramaan Centres in their cities to obtain the Digital Life Certificate.

Pensioners, please make use of this amazing opportunity. Visit the Jeevan Praman website and follow the procedure laid down there to get your Digital Life Certificate.

Read: All that you need to know about Senior Citizens Savings Scheme