As covid curbs loosens all over India and people are finally getting a sigh of relief , there stands another problem standing at the doors of the people and Government of India that is the Vaccination of population of 1.38 billon and expected to overtake China by 2030 .
The vaccination drive started with a positive note from 16th January while then India had recorded the highest number of cases after the United States of America. The Vaccination started with the vaccinating our frontline workers but ironically neither the State nor the Centre included the bankers in the frontline workers and including Banks were working through out as they come under the definition of essential services and to support my statement ,In march a Parliamentary committee had recognised bankers as COVID WARRIORS , there is an unjust treatment going on with the bankers , Bank employers have been one of the most vulnerable section due to nature of their work employees are even forced to attend office and if they don’t they face penal actions , some banks are even refusing to disclose their data in the fear of losing business .The latest death toll according to CH Venkatachalam the General Secretary of All India Bank Employees Association is more than 1000 and 10000 plus employees have tested positive, which is worrying issue keeping in the mind the fact that many of the banks are hiding the real numbers. If we take a example of Mumbai although bankers are Frontline workers they were not allowed to be travel by local train, the private sector and cooperative banks were struggling for that
The Government are insensitive to the realities on ground just by providing SOP’s and expecting to be followed strictly can’t work especially in a country like India where people are still not very comfortable or tech savy they don’t trust or are unaware of net-banking , such crowd prefers to visit banks on a daily basis to support my statement. I would mention that Today while the Supreme court three judge bench was hearing the matter of Suo Motto covid crisis Hon. Justice D Y Chandrachud dig up the question of digital divide and asked the centre is it realistically possible to expect people from rural areas to register on Co-Win App. Same goes with the banking services how do we expect a person who is unaware of niity griites of E – banking ,who has to transfer money somehow how will he do that although I believe Digital India has been a success to some extent but you Have to look to the reality too.
In a letter to, The chief minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray , the United Forum of Bank Unions (UBFU) also appealed for regulation of the rush at bank counters. After the arrival of credits under various government schemes into customers’ account, bank branches are facing huge rush at counters, especially in rural and semi-urban areas.
It said, “Bank branches were already burdened with heavy rush as and when it had been opened to function after partial or full lockdown restrictions. additionally , branches also are processing crop loans of the farmers. The cumulative effect of all this is often posing an excellent challenge to the bankers.”
Way Forward:
The way forward is first Banking Institutions and financial institutions should start vaccinating their employees and should start bearing the cost of the employees.
Second is constant pressure to the respective Government and local bodies to make available jabs to the bankers.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
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