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The Arunachal Christian Forum has made a caste based allegation against SBI. The forum has blamed SBI over an alleged issue in the bank’s digital banking and KYC systems, claiming that Christians belonging to Scheduled Tribes (STs) in Arunachal Pradesh are being automatically classified under the “General” category.
The forum has written to the SBI Regional Manager in Itanagar, stating that members of constitutionally recognised Scheduled Tribes in the state are facing difficulties while opening bank accounts or updating their KYC details through the SBI YONO application and other digital banking platforms.
According to the forum, when a customer selects “Christian” as their religion in SBI’s banking applications, the system does not allow them to select the Scheduled Tribe category. Instead, the customer is directed to the “General” category.
The forum has described the classification as discriminatory. It argued that being a Christian does not automatically mean that a person belonging to a notified Scheduled Tribe loses their ST status.
The organisation said the Scheduled Tribes Order, 1950 does not provide for a religion-based exclusion under which a member of a notified Scheduled Tribe would cease to be an ST merely because they follow Christianity.
The forum further argued that SBI is not the competent authority to remove a person’s tribal status when the customer possesses a valid ST certificate. It said the bank should not automatically classify a tribal Christian customer under the General category only on the basis of the religion declared by the customer.
The organisation has urged SBI to examine and correct its software systems so that religion and Scheduled Tribe status are not treated as mutually exclusive categories. It has also asked the bank to ensure that customers belonging to recognised ST communities can correctly record both their religion and tribal status in its banking and KYC systems.
The forum has sought a response from SBI within 15 days regarding the corrective measures being taken to resolve the issue. It also warned that if the matter is not resolved within the given period, it would be compelled to gherao SBI branches across Arunachal Pradesh.
