Defence Pensioners Cross 20.48 Lakh Digital Life Certificates

More than 20.48 lakh defence pensioners had submitted their Digital Life Certificates (DLC) as on 11 November 2026 under the nationwide DLC Campaign 5.0, the largest contribution by any participating department. The drive runs through the month, from 1 to 30 November 2026.

Who runs it

The Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) of the Ministry of Defence has taken up the outreach for defence pensioners, while the campaign as a whole is coordinated by the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. The aim is to let pensioners and family pensioners finish their yearly identification without running from office to office, with elderly, super-senior and differently-abled pensioners given first call on help.

The network on the ground

• 194 SPARSH Service Centres equipped to generate certificates and offer SPARSH platform services.
• 4.63 lakh Common Service Centres, 13 partner banks along with India Post Payments Bank, and 29 nodal officers.
• Around 80 outreach programmes across the country, and a mega camp at Kochi on 23 November 2026 offering help on the spot.

Face authentication in the lead

The campaign leans on Aadhaar-based Face Authentication Technology through the Jeevan Pramaan portal and mobile app, and more than four-fifths of the certificates are being generated this way. A pensioner can authenticate the certificate on a smartphone, so no separate biometric device is needed. The method helps the very old, whose fingerprints have faded with age, and those who find it hard to travel, and it builds the habit of filing the certificate from home in the years ahead.

Record of earlier campaigns

Under DLC Campaign 4.0 in November 2025 the Defence Accounts Department generated over 20.94 lakh certificates through the same network of service centres, common service centres and partner banks. Outreach under SPARSH has widened as well, with 35.11 lakh defence pensioners onboarded by October 2026, supported by 301 SPARSH outreach programmes and 204 Raksha Pension Samadhan Aayojans that settled over 8,000 grievances on the spot. The Department has restated its guiding line of the right pension to the right pensioner at the right time, and urged pensioners to use the nearest service centre, bank or camp during the month.