SPARSH Cuts Defence Pension Grievance Redressal Time by Two-Thirds, Resolves 5.6 Lakh Legacy Cases
Currently, 31.54 lakh pensioners across India and Nepal are onboarded onto the digital system, making it the world’s largest pension platform for defence personnel.
New Delhi, September 23: The Ministry of Defence announced that its System for Pension Administration – Raksha (SPARSH) has significantly improved pension management for defence personnel, reducing grievance disposal time from 56 days in April 2025 to just 20 days at present.
According to official data, SPARSH has resolved 5.6 lakh out of 6.43 lakh legacy discrepancy cases (87%), safeguarding entitlements of defence pensioners. Currently, 31.54 lakh pensioners across India and Nepal are onboarded onto the digital system, making it the world’s largest pension platform for defence personnel.
Faster Payments and Transparency
In FY 2024–25, a defence pension budget of ₹1,57,681 crore was disbursed in real time through SPARSH. When One Rank One Pension (OROP)-III was rolled out in July 2024, ₹1,224.76 crore reached 20.17 lakh beneficiaries within 15 days. In May 2025 alone, suo motu scrutiny of pension cases resulted in an additional ₹3.02 crore being disbursed to 48 pensioners.
Outreach and Grievance Handling
The platform has also focused on accessibility, conducting more than 100 outreach events in the past year, including 211 SPARSH Outreach Programmes and 193 Raksha Pension Samadhan Ayojans (RPSAs). The Defence Accounts Department (DAD) participated in the 13th and 14th All India Pension Adalats, resolving 260 and 252 grievances on the spot, respectively.
Scalable Service Network
SPARSH now integrates 202 DAD offices, 4.63 lakh Common Service Centres, and over 5,200 bank branches functioning as service centres, providing extensive access to pensioners.
Officials described SPARSH as a transparent, inclusive, and efficient model of governance, transforming pension administration “from fragmentation to integration, and from delay to dignity.”
