NPS Vatsalya Account for a Minor Child: How to Open and Run It

A parent or legal guardian opens an NPS Vatsalya account in the child's name on the eNPS portal or at any registered Point of Presence such as a bank or India Post. The minimum to open is Rs 250 and the minimum each year is also Rs 250. The guardian runs the account until the child turns 18, when it becomes a regular NPS account.

If you are short on time, jump to the step-by-step below and open the account online on eNPS in about 20 minutes with the child's date-of-birth proof and your own KYC.

NPS Vatsalya is a contributory pension scheme for minors run by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), the national pension regulator. It was launched on 18 September 2024 and is now governed by the NPS Vatsalya Scheme Guidelines 2025, which came into effect on 23 February 2026. The aim is simple: start a retirement corpus for your child decades early so compounding does the heavy lifting.

Every account gets a Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) in the child's name. The child is the sole beneficiary. The guardian only operates the account on the child's behalf until the child reaches 18.

The scheme is open to any Indian citizen below the age of 18. Under the 2025 Guidelines, minors who are Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) or Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) and are below 18 can also join.

• The guardian is either a parent or a legal guardian.
• One account per child. You cannot open two NPS Vatsalya accounts for the same minor.
• A guardian who already has their own NPS account can still open a Vatsalya account for the child.
• If the guardian is an NRI or OCI, the child's NRE or NRO bank account is mandatory.

The guardian is also the default nominee, so you do not have to register a separate nominee at the time of joining.

Under the NPS Vatsalya Scheme Guidelines 2025, the minimum contribution for account opening and for each year is Rs 250. There is no upper limit. Relatives and friends can also gift money straight into the child's NPS Vatsalya account.

If you miss the minimum yearly contribution, the account is marked “frozen”, not closed. It reactivates the moment you contribute again. The account closes only when you formally request an exit.

You also choose how the money is invested, using the same options as the NPS All Citizen Model: a pension fund, a recordkeeping agency, and either Auto Choice life-cycle funds or Active Choice with your own equity, corporate-bond and government-security mix.

Keep these ready before you start:

• Proof of the child's date of birth: birth certificate, school leaving or matriculation certificate, passport, or PAN.
• Your own KYC as guardian: Aadhaar, driving licence, passport, voter ID, NREGA job card, or National Population Register document.
• Your PAN, or a Form 60 declaration under Rule 114B if you do not have a PAN.
• For NRI or OCI guardians, the child's NRE or NRO bank account details.

You can open the account in two ways:

1. Online through the eNPS platform of the NPS Trust.
2. Through a Point of Presence (PoP) registered with PFRDA, such as major banks, India Post and pension funds, either online or in person.

The online eNPS route is fastest. The PoP route is useful if you want help filling the form or you are submitting a court order for legal guardianship.

On eNPS, select the NPS Vatsalya option, enter the guardian and minor details, and complete the guardian's KYC. A court-appointed legal guardian must also upload the court order appointing them. NRI and OCI guardians use a separate form.

Pay the Rs 250 (or more) initial contribution. The Central Recordkeeping Agency then issues the PRAN in the child's name and sends the e-PRAN card and welcome kit by email. The account is now live and the child is the sole beneficiary.

You can take money out early, but only for genuine needs. The Guidelines allow partial withdrawal for three reasons:

• education of the child,
• treatment of specified illnesses of the child, or
• disability of more than 75% of the child.

The conditions are strict:

• You can withdraw only after the account has run for at least 3 years from opening.
• The most you can take is 25% of the contributions you have made, excluding the returns earned on them.
• You can make this withdrawal a maximum of 2 times before the child turns 18. A further 2 partial withdrawals are allowed between ages 18 and 21 once fresh KYC is done.

The withdrawal is on a self-declaration basis, so you do not need to prove the reason with documents up front, but you must use the money for the stated purpose.

At 18 the account does not shut down. Under the 2025 Guidelines, the subscriber continues under NPS Vatsalya for up to 3 years from the date of turning 18, unless they choose to exit or shift earlier.

During that window, the now-adult subscriber must complete a fresh KYC and furnish nominee details. Until that fresh KYC is verified, no withdrawal is allowed, though the invested money keeps earning returns. Once the KYC is done, the subscriber picks one of these options:

1. Continue in NPS, on which the account with its full corpus shifts seamlessly to the All Citizen Model of NPS.
2. Take up to 80% of the corpus as a lump sum and reinvest the balance in an annuity from an Annuity Service Provider.
3. Take the entire corpus as a lump sum if the total is less than Rs 8 lakh.

Warning: if no option is exercised by age 21, the account is deemed shifted to the high-risk variant under the Multiple Schemes Framework, and the special Vatsalya exit rules stop applying. So do the fresh KYC on time.

Take a Pune family. Kashvi Pathak opens an NPS Vatsalya account for her newborn with the Rs 250 minimum and sets up a Rs 1,000 monthly auto-debit. In year four, when a school admission needs funds, she is eligible to withdraw up to 25% of what she has contributed so far, because the account has crossed the 3-year mark and education is a permitted reason. When her child turns 18, the corpus rolls into a regular NPS account after a fresh KYC, carrying nearly two decades of compounding with it. The Rs 250 entry point is what makes this reachable for ordinary families, not just high earners.

For a deeper grounding in citizen rights and how to push government bodies for records or scheme details, see The RTI Playbook.

Rs 250. Under the NPS Vatsalya Scheme Guidelines 2025, the minimum for account opening and the minimum annual contribution are both Rs 250. There is no maximum limit, and relatives or friends can gift contributions into the child's account.

Yes. The guardian can be an NRI or OCI. NRI and OCI guardians fill a separate form, and the child's NRE or NRO bank account is mandatory in that case. Under the 2025 Guidelines, minors who are themselves NRIs or OCIs and are below 18 can also join the scheme.

Yes, but only for education, treatment of specified illnesses, or disability of more than 75% of the child. You can withdraw after 3 years from opening, up to 25% of your contributions excluding returns, and a maximum of 2 times before the child turns 18. The withdrawal is on a self-declaration basis.

It continues under NPS Vatsalya for up to 3 years from when the child turns 18. The subscriber must do a fresh KYC and add nominees. They can then keep the account in the All Citizen Model of NPS, or exit by taking up to 80% as lump sum and the rest as annuity, or take the full amount if the corpus is below Rs 8 lakh.

The account is marked “frozen”, not closed. It reactivates as soon as you contribute again. The account closes only when you submit a formal exit request to your service provider. So a missed year is fixable and does not forfeit the corpus.

• Find the child's birth certificate or passport and your own Aadhaar and PAN.
• Go to the eNPS platform of the NPS Trust and select the NPS Vatsalya option.
• Complete the guardian KYC and pay the Rs 250 initial contribution to generate the PRAN.
• If you are an NRI or OCI guardian, keep the child's NRE or NRO account details handy and use the separate guardian form.
• Have a scheme or government-records question you cannot get answered? Ask the community at RTI Wiki community help.

• PFRDA, NPS Vatsalya Scheme Guidelines 2025, Circular PFRDA/2026/02/NPS-Vatsalya/01 dated 07 January 2026, effective 23 February 2026 [contribution Rs 250, partial withdrawal 25% after 3 years max 2 times, continuation and exit at 18].
• Press Information Bureau, “PFRDA issues NPS Vatsalya Scheme Guidelines 2025 to strengthen long-term financial security for Minors”, PRID 2214246.
• NPS Trust, Frequently Asked Questions, NPS Vatsalya [eligibility, eNPS and PoP opening, documents, frozen-account rule].

• RTI Wiki practical guides directory for step-by-step citizen guides on schemes, records and grievances.
• Ask the RTI Wiki community if a bank or PoP gives you conflicting answers on the scheme.

Last reviewed: 3 June 2026.