SPARSH is a web-based pension processing system launched in 2020 in phases for the three wings of the armed forces and defense civilians. A Sparsh Life Certificate is required for the Sparsh Pension Portal for the pension sanction and payment needs of the Armed Forces. It processes the pension claims and credits the amount directly into the beneficiary’s bank account without any external intermediary. According to the defense ministry, SPARSH has disbursed more than Rs 11,600 crore in FY2021-22, from just about Rs 57 crore in FY2020-21. As of September 2022, there were around 32 lakh defense pensioners in the country, of which over half were expected to be brought under the SPARSH system in the same year as part of the government’s initiative to provide a comprehensive solution to defense pensioners under a single platform.
How Does the SPARSH Defence Pension Portal Work?
SPARSH, or the System for Pension Administration Raksha, provides defense pensioners with complete information on their pension account, including entitlements, from the date of commencement of pension to the date of cessation through its portal, administered by the Defence Accounts Department (DAD) under the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions). After being initially rolled out to new retirees, it was extended to all defense pensioners drawing pensions through bank branches and other pension disbursing agencies. The old pensioners were migrated to SPARSH in a phased manner to prevent the need to audit payment vouchers generated by scores of bank branches responsible for disbursing monthly pensions to retired service members across the country. Under the SPARSH initiative, DAD has onboarded public and private-sector banks, such as Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, HDFC Bank, and India Post Payments Bank for pension administration across India. Besides over 160 DAD offices, the bank branches act as SPARSH interfaces, allowing pensioners to update profiles, register grievances, generate life certificates, verify data, get monthly pension information, etc.How To Submit A Life Certificate On SPARSH
To access the SPARSH portal, the pensioners must create a login credential using their Aadhar number, the registered mobile number in Aadhar, and the pension account number. They will receive the login details on their registered mobile phone numbers. They can submit the life certificate or the Jeevan Pramaan Patra manually or digitally.Submit It Manually
To submit it manually, you must download the manual life certificate (MLC) form from the website after logging in to your account. You will then need to fill it out and get it signed by a first-class gazetted officer. After that, you must scan and upload the form on the SPARSH website. The file must be in a PDF format and less than 10 MB. After SPARSH approves it, the status bar will reflect the MLC with the next due date. Usually, the life certificate will be expected in the same month as last year, not bound by November every year.Submit It Digitally
The pensioner can generate a DLC in two ways: through a biometric device, like a finger scanner attached to a computer, laptop, or phone, or a mobile device with a face recognition application. Requirements to complete the process through a mobile face recognition application:- 1: You must have an Android smartphone version 7, with a 5-megapixel camera and 4 GB RAM, and the Aadhaar number registered with the pension disbursing agency (PDA).
- Step 2: Download and install the “AadhaarFaceRD” and the Jeevan Pramaan Face applications from the Google Play Store.
- Step 3: Complete the operator authentication process through face recognition.
- Step 4: Complete the pensioner’s authentication process, which is the same as the operator.
- Operator Authentication
