The Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW) has implemented several initiatives in 2025 aimed at enhancing the welfare of pensioners, streamlining grievance redressal, and promoting digitization in pension processes.

Grievance Redressal Highlights

1. Digital Life Certificate (DLC) Campaign 4.0
 

- The DLC Campaign 4.0 was the largest ever campaign conducted for improving pensioners welfare in India from November 1 to 30, 2025 in 2000 cities/ towns across the Nation with 75000 camps and 1400 Nodal Officers, generated 1.54 crore Digital Life Certificates (DLCs).

- Over 90 lac DLCs representing more than 60 percent were generated using face authentication technology, 2.5 times increase over the DLC 3.0 Campaign. This proved particularly beneficial for elderly pensioners with faded fingerprints, differently abled individuals facing mobility challenges and pensioners living in rural and remote areas. [

- 11.1 lac DLC’s submitted by pensioners aged 80 and above, 22 lac DLCs generated by State Bank of India, 4.6 lac DLCs generated by IPPB and 3.12 lac DLCs were generated by PNB.

DLC being generated for Senior Citizens

2. Redressal of Pensioner Grievances:

- Over 1.07 lakh grievances from pensioners across 92 Ministries and Departments were resolved, 25,117 family pension cases and 13,113 super senior pensioner cases (as on 02.12.2025).

- The average grievance resolution time has been reduced from 36 days (2018) to 28 days (2025).

3. CPENGRAMS Portal Improvements:

- Monthly reports on grievances, ranking Ministries/Departments based on their performance in grievance redressal, were introduced.

 - New features include auto forwarding of grievances in Ministry of Defence has been started for quick resolution.

4. Special Campaign for Family Pension and Super Senior Pension Grievances:

- A one-month Special campaign in July 2025 focused on resolving 2,210 grievances, achieving 93% success rate by addressing 2,052 cases.

- Complex cases, such as those involving minors or dependent daughters, were successfully resolved during this campaign.

5. Pension Adalats

- Three Pension Adalats were organized on 13.02.2025, 4.06.2025 and 10.09.2025, including two thematic Adalat focused on grievances related to family pension and super senior pensioners respectively.

- Out of 1840 grievances taken up, 1467 grievances were resolved on the spot.

- Since the initiative's inception in 2017, 14 Pension Adalats have been held redressing a total of 26,725 long pending grievances. Among these, 19,133 cases have been successfully resolved, achieving over 71% success rate in grievance resolution.

              MoS (PP) Dr. Jitendra Singh, providing on the spot resolution to grievances

6. National Anubhav Awards Scheme:

The 8^th National Anubhav Awards Scheme 2025 recognized 15 exemplary write-ups by retiring officials, with 33% awarded to women—the highest percentage in the scheme’s history.

National Anubhav Awardees

7. ANUBHAV Awardee Speak Webinar:
   - A monthly series featuring awardees and prominent retired personalities completed its 22^th edition.
   - Speakers from 16 Ministries inspired retiring employees to share their experiences.

Monthly Pensioners Anubhav Awardee’s Speak

8. National Workshop on Pension Litigation

- lst National Workshop on Pension Litigation was held on 2nd July, 2025 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble MoS (PP). The workshop was attended by over 300 Nodal Officers and Panel Lawyers from all Ministries/Departments handling the Court cases of Pension Litigation in various Courts across India.

- The workshop focused on improving pension litigation management and ensuring greater coordination amongst the Nodal Officers and Panel Lawyers of all Ministries/Departments including Law officers in pursuance of the Directive of Department of Law dated 04.04.2025 on “Efficient and Effective Management of Litigation by Government of India”. Hon’ble MoS(PP), Learned Attorney General of India, Secretary DoPPW, Secretary Law, Secretary Ex-Servicemen Welfare, Member CAT and Learned Additional Solicitor General of India addressed the Workshop.

National Workshop on Pension Litigation

Integration of Pension Processes

1. End-to-end digitization of pension application process:

   - A single simplified form (Form 6-A) was introduced under Bhavishya replacing nine older forms.

   - More than 41,998 retiring officials have filled their pension application through Form 6-A.

 -  Continuous and dedicated efforts are being made with PFMS for achieving end-to-end digitization of pension application process by integrating PFMS with Bhavishya.

3. Integration with Banks

- 2 new banks viz. HDFC, Indian Bank and ICICI Bank are being integrated with Bhavishya in 2025. Total 9 banks have been integrated with Bhavishya so far. This integration has covered 90% of the pensioners and family pensioners.

Awareness Programs and Outreach

1. Bankers’ Awareness Programs:
   - Workshops were held to educate field bankers on pension rules and procedures.

   - Programs were organized in Ahmedabad and virtually with various pension-disbursing banks.

Awareness Programme at Ahmedabad

2. Pre-Retirement Counseling (PRC) Workshops:
   - Workshops conducted in Guwahati and Delhi benefited over 1,510 retiring officials by covering topics like pensionary benefits, DLC submissions, and investment options.

Pre-Retirement Workshops

3. Meetings with Pensioners’ Welfare Associations:
   - Five outreach meetings were held in cities such as Chennai, Guwahati, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad to enhance awareness of DoPPW initiatives.

Pensioners’ Awareness Programme at Ahmedabad

Reforms in Gratuity, NPS OSM and UPS

1. Amendments/Simplification of Rules:

   - The CCS (Payment of Gratuity under NPS) Rules, 2021 were amended vide notification dated 28.04.2025 to bring it at par with the provisions of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021.

   - A rule book on the CCS (Payment of Gratuity under NPS) Rules, 2021 was published.

2. Unified Pension Scheme:

• CCS (Implementation of the UPS under the NPS) Rules, 2025 notified on 02.09.2025 for employees opting for UPS.
• Two circulars were dated 18.06.2025 for employees covered under UPS:
  1. For extending the benefit of “Retirement Gratuity and Death Gratuity” to Central Government employees opting for UPS in accordance with the CCS (Payment of Gratuity under NPS) Rules, 2021, and
  2. Provide option to Central Government employees opting for UPS for availing benefits of OPS under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 or the CCS(Extraordinary pension) Rules, 2023 in the event of death of a Government employee during service or his discharge from service on account of his disablement / invalidation.

UPS Rules, Booklet

3. Monitoring of NPS Implementation and UPS Outreach:

   - Daily Review meetings were conducted with concerned Ministries / Departments and organization on the implementation of UPS for Central Government employees during the month of September, 2025 to enhance its outreach and for spreading the UPS provisions to beneficiaries.

- Two training workshops on NPS and UPS were conducted at CSOI in July and August, 2025 for Central Government officers dealing with these matters. Further, Officers of this Department also participated in training programmes conduced on UPS introduction by various other departments.

Governance and Grievance Mechanisms:

1. Inter-Ministerial Review Meetings (IMRMs):

   - Monthly reviews ensured adherence to grievance redressal guidelines and discouraged premature or summary disposal of grievances.

2. CPENGRAMS Outreach Campaigns:

   - Over 1296 success stories and 70 lakh SMS alerts were shared to raise awareness among pensioners.

3. Anubhav Outreach Campaigns:

   - Over 900 Write ups has been published (3 times as compared to last year) as on 02.12.2025 for evaluation under National Anubhav Award Scheme-2025.

Other Key Initiatives

1. Compendiums for Pension Related Instructions:
   - Two compendiums on instructions/circulars issued by DoPPW were compiled and issued during the year 2025.

2. Workshops on Gender Equality:
   - Four workshops were held in 2025 to raise awareness about the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act (POSH). Latest of such workshop was organized on 17.10.2025 in DoPPW.

3. Promotion of Rajbhasha Hindi:

Third Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar 2025 

DoPPW was conferred the 3rd Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar 2024-25, in the category of Ministry/Department with less than 300 personnel, by the Department of Official Language, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on Hindi Diwas, 14^th Sept, 2025 held in Ahmedabad (Gujarat).  Hon'ble Union Minister of State, Ministry of Law and Justice, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal presented the shield to the Dept of Pension & Pensioners’
welfare, which was received by the Joint Secretary, Pensions, Shri Dhrubajyoti Sengupta.

NIVRITTI – (An initiative to promote Hindi)

A Musical Hindi Drama, named Nivritti was presented by DoPPW on 7^th June, 2025 in the Sammukh Auditorium, National School of Drama, Mandi House, New Delhi.  It was an in-house production in which Acting, Dance, Vocals, Recitation was performed by the employees of DoPPW.  The Drama was directed by the Joint Secretary of DoPPW. It was a huge success and the repeat staging of the drama was done on 11^th Sept, 2025 in Abhimanch Auditorium, NSD, Mandi House, New Delhi.

SOPAAN 2025 – (An initiative to promote Hindi)

DoPPW has published a book named Sopaan 2025 in which various poems, composed by the employees of the dept were included. DoPPW has also for the first time organized an All India Level Poetry competition for the pensioners. Selected poems composed by the pensioners were also included in the book.

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NKR/AK