The Ministry of Defence has started to Migrate the Pension system of Defence pensioners from Traditional Bank/PDA to Direct disbursement from PCDA using SPARSH Portal.
SPARSH is a system that can be accessed using Smart Phone and PC/Laptop. The has been designed to easy access to the pension profile of the Defence pensioners including family pensioners. It has been found that the aim of this system has been achieved partially due to ignorance of use of ITES by the beneficiaries.
Only 20% Defence pensioners retired from the Army are capable of login their own profile using user ID and Password. They are fully dependent on the nearby Cyber Cafe to access the portal. We have analysed a data of smartphone users published by a Telecommunication Provider Organisation :
Age and % of Smartphone User
55 years and above – 1.1%
45-54 years – 2.2%
35-44 years – 11%
25-34 years – 32.7%
18-24 years – 53%
So, it can be assumed that the Majority of the beneficiaries are unable to handle this facility extended by the Ministry of Defence. However, payment of pension will not be stopped in any way. In recent days some fraudulent activities has been found due to unauthorised access of SPARSH Portal.
SPARSH Pension Credential Stolen and Cheated by Cyber Cafe
Incident 1 : A defence Family pensioner, after getting her SPARSH User ID and Password, visited a nearby cyber cafe and completed her PDV process using OTP.
Consequence : The Owner of Cyber cafe has changed mobile number and Bank account number using SPARSH User ID & PW and diverted total pension amount to his account and acquired full access to SPARSH Profile of the Pensioner. As the FP observed that since the last three months, pension has not been credited to her account, lodged a grievance and finally the matter was revealed. She lost her pension for 3 months.
Incident 2 : An old aged veteran visited Cyber Cafe to update his SPARSH Profile. The Cyber Cafe owner has changed the details of Family pensioner and NOK in favour of his wife.
Consequence : The matter revealed when the veteran Expired and his wife claimed family pension. Later on the matter was solved after a long legal battle.
How to Keep Safe Your SPARSH Pension ?
From the above two incidents, it has been found that we should take precaution and in any circumstance we should not share our credential (User ID and Password ) to any others.
Those who are using Smart Phone are requested to Install SPARSH Mobile App as details mentioned below and access at your own to check your profile or download pension slip, lodging grievance etc.
If your known any pensioner is unable to handle a smart phone, should approach the Nearest SPARSH service centre to get access to the SPARSH Portal.
Those who are capable of handling smartphones but still have not purchased it, kindly buy a smartphone for your own safety and learn to use it from your known circle only so that your pension may remain safe.
It is suggested that if you can’t handle the sparsh portal, kindly approach the Nearest SPARSH service centre to get access to the SPARSH Portal.
Those who are capable to handle smartphone but still have not purchased it, kindly buy a smartphone for your own safety and learn to use it from your known circle only so that your pension may remains safe.