Apar GuptaThe Indian Government has launched Jeevan Pramaan, an Aadhaar-based digital life certificate for pensioners, designed to streamline the pension payment process. This new system, developed by the Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY), allows pensioners to record their Aadhaar number and biometric details via a mobile device or computer with a biometric reader. The collected data is uploaded in real-time to a central database, enabling the Pension Disbursing Agency to access the Digital Life Certificate and verify the pensioner’s status without requiring their physical presence.
This comes after the Supreme Court had ordered the government not to link social benefits to Aadhaar. Nonetheless, various state-run schemes have mandated Aadhaar, including employee salaries in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and services offered by the revenue department, with suggestions to link Aadhaar to ration cards to reduce fraud.