Why Life Certificates For Pensioners At All?
Over the decades there have been various
certificate forms to be signed by the pensioner physically present at the banks
apart from showing the face to familiar bank managers to generate the life
certificates. With the launch of Jeevan
Pramaan in November 2014 (a site and also a mobile app for pensioners to
generate life certificates digitally) and the launch of Digital India to
improve internet connectivity in the rural areas the Life Certificate exercise
became digital and Aadhaar card linked. The Jeevan
Pramaan (evidence of being alive) site is friendly guiding the registered
users to get to know about generating life certificates from their homes. However,
it is not that easy as it sounds.
I had then finally to go to my
pension-issuing bank branch and was horrified to find queues of eagerly waiting
old and frail pensioners without any social distancing and the process was extremely
slow. I had no other alternative but to join the queue hoping for the best,
even though I knew one always-helpful lady executive there very well; because I
did not want to jump the queue considering the fact that most of the people
there were much older than me. As luck would have it, the lady noticed me waiting
and fidgeting impatiently due to violations of norms by the very people whom
the governments always asked to stay at home safely, and called me over to her
counter. I produced my Aadhaar card, my pension book containing the Pension Pay
Order no. and gave these to her. It was done under five minutes taking my
fingerprint on the attached device. Relieved, but with sense of guilt seeing
the older people still waiting, I walked away with a copy of the life
certificate she gave me.
Now, to the question of why at all these
certificates are needed. Well, it can be said that without this ‘proof’ the
death of any pensioner may not be reported to the bank in which case the next
of kin would go on drawing the full pension, perhaps indefinitely; but that is
not possible for two reasons: first, most bank branches have a locality-based clientele
and the word-by-mouth always reaches them; second, most of the families losing
the primary pensioner would consider completing the process of the ‘family
pension’ issue more important. However, this problem of possible fraudulent
practice cannot be resolved by the life certificates. Because, the certificate
is generated on a particular date of November when the holder is declared to be
alive, now if, unfortunately, the pensioner dies the next day or days later the
bank would face exactly the same problem of getting the information.
Majority of the Indian population cannot
afford a smartphone or laptops or desktops, forget about the biometric devices,
and despite Digital India the rural areas still suffer from the connectivity
hassles as have been proved in the lockdowns with most of the rural students getting
deprived of online classes. Besides, many among those who can afford the
devices financially do not possess the technical knowhow. The net result of all
this is that during the month of November every year the bank branches or the Jeevan Pramaan centers are always
crowded with old people which is unpardonable not only in pandemic times, but
also otherwise, forcing them to come out of homes—some tottering with sticks,
some frail and weak and some with illnesses.
So why should the life certificates be
compulsory or for that matter necessary at all? Why should it not be scrapped
like the Modi Government has done with so many archaic laws or practices? The banking
business has been extensively personalized in recent years with millions of
phone calls made every day to customers on various schemes or benefits. So, why
don’t they just make it routine to redirect some of these calls to their
pension-drawing customers, maybe twice or thrice in a year as the most
effective way of finding out if they are still alive or not? The inherent
problems of generating life certificates have also helped the emergence of ‘agents’
who are ready to come to your home to do it on the spot for you, of course, for
a handsome amount ejected out of you. This is one more of the undesirable
results of the unnecessary practice of life certificates. I’m not suggesting
that people should not acquire new and newer knowledge about easier digital
ways; I’m only saying this particular practice does not serve any purpose.
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