New Delhi: After facing flak from various quarters, the State Bank of India (SBI) on Saturday (January 29, 2022) decided to suspend its circular on recruitment of pregnant women.
The country's largest lender had recently reviewed its 'Fitness Standards for Recruitment in the Bank', including norms for pregnant women candidates and stated that under the new rules, a woman candidate with more than three months pregnancy will be considered 'temporarily unfit' and can join the bank within four months after delivery.
The move, however, faced criticism, including from some MPs, bank unions and the Delhi Commission for Women.
In view of the public sentiments, SBI decided to keep the revised instructions regarding recruitment of pregnant women candidates in abeyance and continue with the existing instructions in the matter.
Blaming a section of media for interpreting the revised norms as discriminatory against women, SBI said the revised guidelines were intended to provide clarity on various health parameters where instructions were not clear or were very old.
SBI claimed that it has always been proactive towards the care and empowerment of its women employees who now constitute around 25 per cent of the workforce.
Press release relating to news items about required fitness standards for recruitment in Bank. Revised instructions about recruitment of Pregnant Women candidates stands withdrawn.@DFS_India pic.twitter.com/QXqn3XSzKF
— State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) January 29, 2022
Earlier, women candidates with up to 6 months of pregnancy were allowed to join the bank subject to various conditions. The conditions include furnishing a certificate from a specialist gynaecologist that her taking up bank's employment at that stage is in no way likely to interfere with her pregnancy or the normal development of the foetus, or is not likely to cause her miscarriage or otherwise to adversely affect her health.
MPs including Binoy Viswam and Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote letters to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and demanded immediate withdrawal of the medical fitness circular issued by SBI pertaining to the guidelines for the recruitment of pregnant women.
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) had also issued a notice to SBI seeking withdrawal of its new rules.
State Bank of India seems to have issued guidelines preventing women who are over 3 months pregnant from joining service & have termed them as ‘temporarily unfit’. This is both discriminatory and illegal. We have issued a Notice to them seeking withdrawal of this anti women rule. pic.twitter.com/mUtpoCHCWq
— Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) January 29, 2022
The bank's move had also elicited criticism from the All India State Bank of India Employees' Association.
(With agency inputs)
