Of the total 32 lakh defence pensioners, nearly 31 lakh have been onboarded on System for Pension Administration-Raksha (SPARSH) and their pensions are being directly credited into their bank accounts, the government informed on Saturday.
Launched in October 2020, SPARSH is a ‘Digital India’ initiative that aims to provide a comprehensive and efficient solution for managing defence pensions, including sanctioning and disbursing pensions to the Armed Forces personnel and Defence civilians living across the country.
Over 200 Defence Accounts Department (DAD) offices, 16 bank branches and nearly five lakh CSCs are operational to help pensioners, said the Ministry of Defence in a statement.
In order to help veterans and their families, old women and people living in remote areas where there are no computers and internet facilities, Raksha Pension Samadhan Ayojans (RPSA) are organised at various places to resolve their problems.
During January 2024 to December 2024, seven RPSAs were organised in different parts of the country.
In addition, more than 90 SPARSH outreach programmes have been organised by DAD during the same period to assist veterans and their families, informed the ministry.
“Ex-servicemen and their families can also get help and required information regarding their pension by calling PCDA (P) toll free number 1800-180-5325, where fully trained staff are deployed to help. So far, more than 50 lakh calls have been answered providing them help and information since its inception in December, 2014,” the ministry informed.
Multiple agencies, lack of technical expertise, siloed work approach and lack of coordination led to incorrect payouts to pensioners due to delayed or incorrect or non-revision of pension with widows bearing the brunt of this problem, getting fixed at minimum pension rates.
Not only were there delays in payment of monthly pensions, there was no visibility or transparency to the pensioners, regarding their data and entitlements. Grievances were not attended to by the PDAs on account of lack of knowledge or laxity.
To mitigate such problems, SPARSH was conceptualised and implemented successfully where sanctioning of the pension and its disbursement directly to the account of the pension was brought onto a single platform.
