The Government wants utilise the talent pool of retired professionals to carry forward its flagship programmes.
Every year, around 40,000 people retire from Central-Government civil establishments. If Defense, Railways, Posts and Telecom are added, the number will cross over 100,000. There are already more than 50 lakh existing pensioners.
These retired employees are a pool of knowledge and rich experience. Though, they officially retire at 60, they still have an active life and are still capable of rendering services.
The Government now wants to leverage this knowledge pool.
Jitendra Singh, MoS, personnel, public grievances & pensions, says, “The services of superannuating and retired employees should be gainfully utilised to carry forward the flagship programmes of the Union Government. They can be inducted into advisory bodies of their respective offices and also to dispose of grievances.”
“Retirement should rather be viewed as the beginning of a new innings,” he adds.
The Government has taken some measures for the betterment of retired employees. Minimum pension has been raised to Rs 1000; Jeevan Pramaan biometrics have been introduced for submitting digital Life Certificate; over 1,500 obsolete rules have been scrapped; and the Anubhav platform has been introduced for the first time for retiring employees to share their experiences.
In addition, the Government has also introduced counselling sessions and workshops for the retiring employees.
KV Eapen, secretary, department of pension & pensioners’ welfare (DOP&PW) and secretary, department of administrative reforms & public grievances (DARPG), says, “The DOP&PW has so far registered more than 2,000 pensioners and conducted pre-retirement counselling (PRC) for more than 3,300 employees under the Sankalp project. In addition, the Department has registered 19 pensioners’ associations and 16 NGOs to involve Central Government pensioners in social activities.”
The PRC workshops target retiring personnel two to two-and-a-half years before the retirement date. It counsels them on formalities to be covered for timely payment of retirement dues, financial planning for the amounts received at retirement, preparation of will, CGHS facilities after retirement and post-retirement opportunities through Sankalp.