When Business Targets Turn Into Extortion in Regional Rural Banks

Banks have been catering to a larger section of society in our country. In today's world, one cannot think of running his life without banks. It all starts with one saving account or current account in the bank. From buying groceries to paying hospital bills, from buying gifts to funding the education of your children, you need a bank account. Without having a bank account, all these things seem to be impossible. As the world strides towards a cashless economy, banks have made a palpable presence in our lives. But who is the driving force behind this system that has made our life simple and easier? The present banking system has been the result of persistent efforts of employees working in the banks for decades. 

Without these employees, the objective of financial inclusion could not have been achieved. These employees reached out to the last man of society like missionaries and helped him assimilate into the system by facilitating him with a savings account. With a savings account, a plethora of services was offered to the hoi polloi of the country. Not only saving accounts, but banks also ensconced the institutional credit system in the country, thereby freeing poor and helpless people from the shackles of landlords. Now, due to this, artisans, farmers, and women started dreaming of becoming entrepreneurs as banks gave them accessible and affordable credit to increase their produce. In other words, the banking system has revolutionized our lives. 

Targets Trump Over Humanity

 But have we ever thought of those who have been working tirelessly as cogs in this system? These bank employees have been going through unimaginable and unspeakable working conditions. What would you call it if your employer asks you that if you achieve the targets, only then you will get the leave sanctioned? What will you call it if after months of tireless work in your branch, you yearn for a reprieve in meeting your family who has been living 100 kilometers from your station, and for that, you apply for leave, but your boss says that you cannot leave your station as you haven't achieved the targets yet? 

 What will you call it when the transfer of employees to their home region is due, but management delays it, citing that the TA payable on transfers to these employees will burden the balance sheet of the bank? What will you call it when you say that your father is suffering from cancer, and people sitting at the helm, whose chests are brimming with enormous hubris, ask you to show the document that proves that your father is suffering from cancer? I will simply call it extortion. If you achieve the targets, only then will you get what you need desperately. Extortion masquerading as employee welfare has taken a toll on the mental health of many bankers. 

Brutal Coercion 

I will quote an example of my colleague who has been working in a RRB for a long period. He told me that he has been awaiting his confirmation despite completing the probation period, which is two years in the case of officers and one year for office assistants in regional rural banks. As he is an officer, despite completing two years of his service, he has not been confirmed yet. I asked him the reason behind such a delay. He told me that he could not achieve business targets as, due to staff shortage in his branch, he must remain in the field to contain fresh slippage of the branch. He had been threatened in a review meeting by the authorities that they would delay his confirmation if he wouldn't achieve the targets. 

A similar incident was narrated by some employees whose transfers were delayed because they supported a union which was labeled as anti-management by a lobby supporting the management on anti-employee policies. It has become a thumb rule in banks, especially regional rural banks, that in order to make employees toe the line, management often delays employee welfare measures, which are the rights of an employee, till he doesn't toe the line. 

A Practice to Break Spirits

Delay in sanctioning leaves, rejection of leaves on arbitrary grounds, delay in transfers, transfers to far-flung areas on arbitrary grounds such as non-performance—these are the tools which the banks’ management often deploys to control their workforce so that they can extort the achievement of exorbitant and whimsical business targets. Such obstreperous and empathy-ridden working conditions have made bankers vulnerable to fragile working conditions. 

In the banking industry, the rights of an employee are weighed against profit, and profit often weighs down the rights of employees. This brazen, clandestine extortion has stripped employees of their dignity and straitjacketed them from speaking up against those who have been perpetuating it. The banking industry that has been running our daily lives has employees whose daily lives have become fragile because of the obstreperous and authoritarian working culture being perpetuated from the top. 

The internal hardships of a Gramin banker remain a painful saga unknown beyond the banks. Yet, the system-induced extortion of employees awaits a final resolution.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.)