New Delhi, Nov 2 (IANS): More than 1.8 lakh pensioners generated their digital life certificates (DLC) on the very first day, even as the government rolled out the largest-ever campaign, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions said.

The Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare on Friday launched the third and the largest nationwide DLC campaign in 800 cities or districts across India from November 1-30.

"This is the biggest-ever DLC campaign undertaken," said a statement issued by the personnel ministry.

The total number of DLCs generated by Friday evening was 1.81 lakh, it added.

The Campaign is being held in collaboration with CGDA, DoT, Railways, UIDAI, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) to reach all the pensioners in the remotest corners of the country.

In addition “19 banks, 785 district post offices, and 57 welfare associations,” will also collaborate in the month-long campaign.

The campaign aims “to promote digital empowerment of pensioners using face authentication technology”, the ministry said, adding that during the campaign technical support will be provided by MEITy and UIDAI.

“Face authentication has been made more seamless and convenient for the elderly pensioners, and can be used on Android as well as iOS,” the ministry said.

The technology enables the identification of a pensioner by a facial scan using a smartphone camera from the convenience of their homes to complete the process of submitting the DLC without having to travel to banks or post offices for the purpose.

The authentication is carried out against UIDAI’s Aadhaar database using UIDAI’s Face Recognition Application.

In June, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) noted a more than threefold jump in the number of EPS pensioners submitting Facial Authentication Technology-based Digital Life Certificates -- from 2.1 lakh in 2022-23 to 6.6 lakh in 2023-24.

EPFO said that the 6.6 lakh facial scan-based DLCs in 2023-24 comprise almost 10 per cent of the total DLCs received during the year. Taken together around 60 lakh DLCs were received from the pensioners during the last financial year.