Rural Development Dept, PFRDA Sign MoU to Roll Out Pension Sakhis
DoRD and PFRDA have signed an MoU to create a Pension Sakhis network drawn from DAY-NRLM community cadres to expand rural pension coverage.
The Department of Rural Development and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build a community-based pension outreach network of 'Pension Sakhis' across rural India.
The agreement was signed by Amit Shukla, Joint Secretary in the Department of Rural Development, and Sumeet Kaur Kapoor, Executive Director of PFRDA, in the presence of Rural Development Secretary Rohit Kansal.
The partnership will draw on the community institutional network built under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), including Banking Correspondent Sakhis and other trained community resource persons. These cadres will carry pension awareness, financial literacy, enrolment assistance and post-enrolment support closer to rural households.
The initiative is designed to address a persistent gap in pension coverage: many households have limited access to formal financial advice and retirement-planning services. Pension Sakhis are expected to serve as trusted local facilitators, reaching self-help group members, rural women, Lakhpati Didis and other rural participants. Their role will include explaining pension and retirement options, helping with enrolment and assisting households in understanding pension-related services.
Speaking at the signing, Kansal said rural households in the SHG movement have distinct savings patterns, livelihood cycles and risk profiles, making social security an important part of the Mission's wider goal of sustainable prosperity. He said social security is not only about protection against vulnerability but also about giving households the confidence and resilience to pursue sustained economic advancement. He stressed that pension awareness and financial literacy must rest on honesty, transparency and trust, and that rural citizens should receive clear information to make informed choices about their long-term financial security.
Mamta Shankar highlighted the growing importance of retirement planning amid rising life expectancy and changing demographic patterns. She expressed hope that the partnership would significantly improve awareness and adoption of pension products, including the National Pension System, among rural households outside formal retirement and social-security mechanisms.
The collaboration will also use digital dashboards and mobile- and web-based tools, including the Department's LoKoS system, to monitor outreach and enrolment, track progress and identify coverage gaps. Community-level outreach will be backed by suitable digital systems for monitoring and service delivery.
The MoU combines PFRDA's expertise in pension regulation and retirement-security systems with DAY-NRLM's community reach through women's collectives and trained grassroots cadres. The effort marks a shift in the role of the Mission's community workers, from facilitating access to banking and livelihoods to helping rural households build long-term financial security and resilience.
Rural households are increasingly part of formal financial systems, but access to banking does not automatically translate into adequate retirement planning. For families dependent on agriculture, informal employment and small enterprises, incomes can be irregular and exposed to economic shocks. Building awareness and encouraging early, informed pension participation is therefore seen as a component of household financial resilience, and the initiative is expected to contribute to a broader shift in the rural financial inclusion agenda from access to financial services towards informed participation, long-term savings and financial resilience.