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The Department of Rural Development and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create and support a community-based outreach mechanism of 'Pension Sakhis' across rural India.
The cadre will be built from DAY-NRLM's existing community institutional network, including its Banking Correspondent Sakhis and other trained community resource persons.
Pension Sakhis will work as community-level facilitators — spreading pension awareness and financial literacy, facilitating enrolment and providing post-enrolment support, with the National Pension System named among the products to be promoted.
Target groups are self-help group members, rural women, Lakhpati Didis and other rural participants.
Outreach and enrolment will be tracked through digital dashboards and mobile and web solutions, including the Department's own LokOS system.
Mobilise poor rural households, especially women, into self-help groups and their federations so they can access credit, build enterprises and improve their socio-economic position
Key: Launched in June 2011 as the National Rural Livelihoods Mission by the Ministry of Rural Development and renamed DAY-NRLM in 2015; its SHG network is the institutional base the Pension Sakhi cadre will be built on
A defined-contribution retirement savings system regulated by PFRDA
Key: Notified on 22 December 2003 and effective from 1 January 2004 for new central government recruits; opened to all citizens, including the unorganised sector, on a voluntary basis from 1 May 2009
A guaranteed minimum pension aimed squarely at unorganised-sector workers — the constituency this outreach targets
Key: In effect from 1 June 2015 and administered by PFRDA; the joining age is 18 to 40 years, with the pension guaranteed by the Government of India
Enable women in DAY-NRLM self-help groups to earn more than Rs 1 lakh a year
Key: Launched in 2023 under DAY-NRLM; the original target of 3 crore Lakhpati Didis was met and the goal has since been raised to 6 crore by 2029-30. Lakhpati Didis are named in the MoU as a target group for pension outreach
Place a trained SHG woman in each gram panchayat to deliver banking services at the doorstep
Key: A DAY-NRLM initiative under which 50,000 women SHG members were dedicated as BC Sakhis in September 2021; the Pension Sakhi role extends the same cadre from banking access to retirement planning
India's pension regulator. It regulates and develops the National Pension System and administers the Atal Pension Yojana, registering and supervising pension funds, points of presence and central recordkeeping agencies. It had functioned as an interim authority before being given statutory status by the PFRDA Act, 2013.
The statute that made PFRDA a statutory regulator — enacted on 19 September 2013 and brought into force on 1 February 2014. It provides for the regulation of the National Pension System and of pension schemes to which the Act applies, which is the authority PFRDA brings to this partnership.
Jan Dhan-era policy measured financial inclusion by whether a household had an account. This MoU takes the next step — whether a household with an account is actually saving for retirement — which is why the Department framed it as a shift from access to informed participation.
The same trained SHG women have been layered with successive roles: Bank Sakhi, BC Sakhi, Krishi Sakhi, Lakhpati Didi and now Pension Sakhi. The pattern — reusing one community cadre for each new last-mile scheme — is itself an exam-relevant feature of DAY-NRLM.
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections; GS Paper 3 > Financial Inclusion
General Awareness > Regulators and Pension Schemes
Who among the following can join the National Pension System (NPS)?
Answer: All State Government employees joining the services after the date of notification by the respective State Governments
Regarding 'Atal Pension Yojana', which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. It is a minimum guaranteed pension scheme mainly targeted at unorganized sector workers. 2. Only one member of a family can join the scheme. 3. Same amount of pension is guaranteed for the spouse for life after subscriber's death. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Answer: 1 and 3 only
A community-level facilitator drawn from DAY-NRLM's SHG cadre, tasked with pension awareness, enrolment and post-enrolment support in rural households.
An SHG woman trained as a banking correspondent to deliver banking services in her gram panchayat under DAY-NRLM.
The Ministry of Rural Development's digital platform for the profile and financial management of DAY-NRLM community institutions.