Digital Life Certificate Campaign 5 Begins in 2000 Districts

The Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare, which works under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, will hold the fifth edition of its nationwide Digital Life Certificate (DLC) campaign from 1 to 30 November 2026. Camps are to be opened in 2000 cities and districts, and the department calls this the biggest drive of its kind it has ever attempted. The rules for the month were notified in an office memorandum dated 13 August 2026.

The target

A saturation model has been chosen, which means the aim is to cover every eligible pensioner in a selected area instead of a sample of them. The number to be reached is 2.30 crore digital life certificates, and of these 1.50 crore are meant to be produced through face authentication.

Who is working on it

A whole-of-government approach has been adopted for the month. The partners are 19 pension disbursing banks, 785 district post offices, 56 pensioners welfare associations, India Post Payments Bank, the Controller General of Defence Accounts, the Department of Telecommunications, the Railways, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation, state governments, UIDAI and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Face authentication at the centre

Most of the weight of the drive sits behind face authentication technology, and technical support for it comes from MeitY and UIDAI. A pensioner can raise the certificate on an Android or an iOS handset by letting the application read the face, so no fingerprint reader and no visit to a branch is needed. Pensioners who are old or who live far from the nearest bank gain the most from that.

How the camps will run

The camps are being held in Utsav mode, which adds services such as health check-ups and Aadhaar updation to the making of the certificate. Pensioners who cannot travel will be served at their doorstep. Grievance officers sitting at the camps are to settle complaints about certificates immediately. Senior officers of the department will visit identified states and review the work on the ground, and mega camps are planned wherever pensioners live in large numbers. Doordarshan, All India Radio and the Press Information Bureau will carry the publicity, helped by text messages, jingles, short films and posts under the hashtag DLCCampaign5.