Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public
Grievances & Pensions
25-June-2014 21:25 IST
MoS (Personnel) Dr. Jitendra Singh
addresses pre-retirement counselling programme
The retirement issue is to be
handled with social mindset – says Dr. Jitendra Singh
The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare conducted
a pre-retirement counselling for retirees here today.
Addressing the concluding session the Minister of State for Personnel, Public
Grievances and Pension Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the issue of retirement is
to be handled with social mindset. The MoS stated that the society should feel
good about it. He stated that the issue is too large to handle by the
government itself and hoped that social organization should come forward to
help.
The Department of Pensions has
institutionalised regular conduct of pre-retirement Counseling workshops.
These workshops target retiring personnel two to two-and-a-half years
before the retirement date. Topics covered are (i) Formalities to be covered
for timely payment of retirement dues (ii) Financial planning for the amounts received at retirement (iii)
Preparation of Will (iv) CGHS facilities after retirement and (v)
Post-retirement opportunities through Sankalp.
The “Sankalp’ programme has been initiated by the Department
towards this end and a web portal of the same name has also been launched.
Pensioners, Pensioner Associations and NGOs can register on the website http://www.pensionersportal.gov.in/sankalp.
Recognising the fact that a retiring government
employee is very often unprepared to face the fact that he may be without a
daily routine and a meaningful existence the day after he retires,
the Government is looking for ways to engage the retired employees in
meaningful social work.
There are approximately 40,000 fresh retirees every
year from the Central Government Civil establishments alone. This number could
be close to 1,00,000 including defense, railways, posts and telecom. In
addition there is a pool of around 50 lakh existing pensioners. This
group of personnel can, by and large, offer greater maturity, experience and
stability. With improved living conditions and the best of medical
facilities, most of these retiring government
employees would be capable of putting in a good 5-7 years of active service.
Further, the financial requirements are by and large taken care of by the
regular monthly pension
payments which are also inflation indexed. What that hurts is a sense of not
being wanted anymore and the lack of a daily routine.
Realising the potential of such a large section of
experienced, capable and productive workforce, the Department of Pensions and
Pensioners’ Welfare has conceptualised such pre-retirement counseling sessions
for retirees. This serves as a platform for exchange of information
between retiring employees and voluntary or other organisations
working towards building society looking for expertise, skill and maturity
which can be offered by these retired government servants. The forum will serve
to facilitate matching of broad parameters of geographical location and basic
skills/ expertise required/ available. Both employees and organisations will
have to register on to this portal.
Another possibility is to bring together groups of
like-minded pensioners /Pensioners’ Associations and the ministries which are
looking for concurrent audit or evaluation of development schemes being
implemented all over the country.
The stakeholders identified for the project are:
Supply side:
a) Pensioners
b) Pensioners Associations identified by the Department involved in pensioners welfare
Demand side:
a) Organisations involved in Social welfare projects
b) Government Departments having Social welfare schemes
c) Indian Institute of Corporate affairs for CSR activities
d) Corporate-Public and Private with CSR funds
Source: PIB
