That's right : it is "Existence" Certificate and not
"Life" Certificate because LIC knows only too well
that the pittance doled out by it under the guise of
'pension' to earlier retirees does not enable them to lead
a decent 'life" and so "Life" Certificate will be
a misnomer in their case at least, right?
Remember that favourite phrase of LIC's - "By way of abundant caution"?
As for "Existence" Certificate I hold that it's enough if we ourselves convince LIC that we THINK and so we EXIST taking a cue from Descartes instead of going after serving LIC Class I / II Officers, HGAs, Bank Managers, Medical Practitioners, etc.
Or we can emulate that spunky girl in the joke who whipped out her compact, took out her mirror, looked at it and declared : "Yes, it's me all right" when asked by a bank clerk to prove her identity. We can go to the nearest office of LIC with a mirror, look at it and declare ourselves on which the head of that office / authorised official would convey our existence to our respective pension disbursing offices.
I know my fellow pensioners are capable of suggesting various other ingenious methods also to prove to LIC that we "EXIST" (somehow?)
P. RAMANATHAN