Government of Haryana has partnered with Vodafone India to facilitate mobile-based disbursement of monthly social security pension. This would be a pilot initiative and would cover 868 beneficiaries at five villages in Karnal and Mahendragarh districts in Haryana.

The new initiative is an improvement over the government’s usual practice of disbursing the pension through the sarpanch of the village. With the induction of Vodafone M-Pesa, beneficiaries with any active mobile number can directly receive payment of the pension. They get intimated via SMS, mentioning the amount of the pension, the withdrawal code and the withdrawal procedure. They can then withdraw the amount by simply authorising the transaction with the withdrawal code at a nearby Vodafone M-Pesa retail outlet.

Vodafone M-Pesa is a mobile wallet which offers services like money transfer, bill payments, and recharge on the move from the mobile. At present, the mobile wallet has more than 3 million customers.