Bank employees across India protest against government’s moves of privatization

About 10 lakh bank employees across India are on strike against the government’s decision of privatization of two more public sector banks. The government has already privatized IDBI Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019, and has merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.

The United Forum of Bank Union (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, including the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) and Bank Employees Confederation of India (BEFI), has given the two-day nationwide strike call.

CH Venkatachalam, general secretary of All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), said the strike has been successful as overwhelming majority of the bank branches remain closed and shutters are down. He said the young employees have been in the forefront in the protest demonstrations which means that they have understood the dangers of privatization. “They have joined the banks after a very tough competition. They deserve job security which will be affected if banks are privatized.”

Sowmya Dutta, All India Bank Officers Association General Secretary, told PTI the two-day strike has impacted all banking services from cash withdrawals to deposits, business transactions, loan process, cheque clearing, and account opening. If the government does not listen to them, he warned, the employees will go for “an even bigger, indefinite strike like the one on the lines of the ongoing farmers’ agitation”. “We are connected with crores of population through our branches, we are educating our customers about the government’s ill policies and how it is going to impact them,” Dutta said.

In the past four years, the central government has merged 14 public sector banks. The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the Budget presentation on Feb. 1, had announced the privatization of two public sector banks as part of the government’s disinvestment plan to generate Rs 1.75 lakh crore.

A Sushma, UFBU convenor, told Sputnik that privatizing banks is not a solution to save them from sinking. She stressed that the government needs to understand why banks are running into losses and then frame the policies accordingly. “About 60 to 70% of people in India still have a bank account in a government bank. Rural India trusts nationalized banks, millions of retired government officers and elderly people receive pensions at these banks. People prefer to take a loan from government banks because of low interest rates compared with private banks.”

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Sushma pointed out that private banks are solely motivated by profit. “They would intolerable burdens on customers. The only motto of private banks would be profits. The private banks would levy charges for all services and impose a huge burden on the common man.”