The Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) has asked banks to improve safety of women employees working in Banks. Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had expressed concern about the safety, security, and welfare of women employees within the banking sector.
The primary concerns were related to women staff members engaged in field activities such as CASA (Current Account Savings Account), insurance, recurring deposits, and loan sourcing, who were required to undertake customer visits to remote or unfamiliar locations, often beyond official working hours. The women employees frequently face pressure to comply with these assignments and often hesitate to raise concerns due to fear of adverse career consequences, such as poor performance assessments, transfers, or loss of employment opportunities.
Recently, a lot of crimes against female bank employees have been reported in India. Some of the cases are listed below:
#1) A woman bank officer posted in Azamgarh was threatened with acid by a bank customer. She is employed as an Agriculture Officer at the Lalganj branch of Punjab National Bank in Azamgarh. A person named Abhay Singh Sengar was continuously harassing her on the mobile phone. He was threatening to kill her, throw acid on her, and defame her if she does not talk to him. Click here to read this news.
#2) In Kanpur Uttar Pradesh, a female bank employee was allegedly beaten and misbehaved with by her colleagues during a party. She was thrown on the road and dragged. Her clothes were torn, and her gold chain was also snatched during the incident. Click here to read this news.
#3) A woman working at the State Bank of India’s Kacharakanahalli branch filed a complaint that a bank customer sent her obscene messages. According to the complaint, the incident began on March 10, when a man identified as KR Ravi Shetty visited the bank. He asked the female employee to share her mobile number and sent obscene messages to her. Click here to read this news.
#4) A Bank customer openly threatened a female officer working in the Indian Bank in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh. First, he visited the branch and argued with her, and then stopped her midway while she was going home and misbehaved with her. Click here to read this news.
These are only some of the cases of harassment faced by women employees in Banks. The list of such cases is very long, and you can read the cases here.
In Banks, women face harassment from both customers and colleagues. Several cases have been reported in which colleagues try to harass females in branches and ask them to visit customers’ places for loan visits, etc. In banks, the majority of the females are posted outside of their home town, and thus, they should not be asked to go on field visits. This is highly unsafe for them, but the seniors often pressurise them to go on visits.
The second important point is that branches don’t have official contact numbers and thus females are forced to call customers using their personal mobile numbers. The customers get the mobile number of females and send obscene messages to them. This should change. Branches should have official mobile numbers, and females should not use their own personal mobile numbers for calling customers.
In this regard, IBA has requested all member banks to proactively examine these issues and draft administrative guidelines based on their specific operational needs; such policies must remain sympathetic, humanitarian, and strictly safeguard the dignity of the workforce.
