Maharashtra’s Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana | Bankers bruised by a populist promise

The Maharashtra government rolled out the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana in August 2024 and is counting on it to gather votes from women. Ever since the scheme was introduced and beneficiaries began thronging banks, there have been several attacks on public sector bank employees. Vinaya Deshpande Pandit reports on a scheme that has caused law and order problems and created fear among employees

Ashish Singh cannot twitch his nose. It is fractured, swollen, and, worse, a constant reminder of the day when he was attacked at his workplace.

A few weeks ago, Singh, the branch manager of a public sector bank in Maharashtra, was at work when a woman and her family members walked in. They stood in queue, waiting to link their Aadhaar with their account, which is mandatory for beneficiaries of the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, a government scheme. When Singh requested them not to let the children jump with their sandals on the sofa meant for senior citizens, one of the women got angry, he recalls. “She hit me with a high-heeled sandal,” he says. The entire family then proceeded to assault Singh. The office staff rushed to get police help.

The incident was captured on the bank’s CCTV camera. Singh flicks out his phone and shows a 10-second clip of the footage. He has deleted the rest because it is “too traumatic”.

Soon after the incident, Singh was transferred abruptly and is now the manager of another branch of the bank, located within a 100-kilometre radius. He is aggrieved — he was supposed to be the bank manager for three years but was shunted out in just three months.

“I was not even asked if I wanted to move out. Those who helped protect me were also transferred. What was our fault? That we stood against those who attacked us and filed an FIR (first information report) against them?” he asks. “I feel like I am guilty even though I am the victim here.”

Growing attacks

The attacks on bank employees began soon after the Maharashtra government rolled out the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, one of its flagship schemes, in August 2024. Under this, the government provides a monthly financial benefit of ₹1,500 to women through direct benefit transfers. Women between 21 and 65 years, who are permanent residents of the State, and have an annual family income of less than ₹2.5 lakh are eligible. The number of beneficiaries is 2.34 crore.

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The government had said “financial assistance under the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana 2024 will be transferred directly to the selected applicant’s bank account.” Days after the scheme was introduced, public sector banks across the State started disbursing the amount to beneficiaries.

Maharashtra’s current Mahayuti government that consists of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party is banking on the scheme to come back to power, following the Assembly elections this month. However, there are issues in implementation. Employees of public sector banks, who are an instrumental part of making the scheme successful, have been getting attacked and assaulted across the State by customers, borrowers, the public, and political elements. Fourteen FIRs have been filed across the State since August, but bank unions say that the number of assaults is actually three times higher. “Several fights have taken place over the counter,” says a union representative. A high-level meeting at the Secretariat was held on October 29 on the problem, but the attacks continue.

The video of a young man using foul language and trying to charge at a branch manager in Dombivli went viral. In Jalna, a local leader of the youth wing of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, a farmers’ union, allegedly assaulted a branch manager at Varud Budruk in Jafarabad taluka over a delay in payment of grants to farmers and women. Again, the video went viral on social media. “We taught him a lesson in ‘Swabhimani style’,” local party workers told the media later.

Also read | Bank employees in Maharashtra demand staff security, action against ‘assaulters’

Many bank employees say the police have failed to invoke Section 121 (causing grievous injuries to deter a public servant from their duty) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in several FIRs. Instead, the police have filed watered-down FIRs, which makes it easy for the accused to get immediate bail, claim the employees.

While the government has been trying to placate the bank employees, who are worried for their safety, many aspiring political leaders have also been at the forefront of these assaults, to gain quick public support, and have been live-streaming their attacks on their social media accounts. Many bank employees claim police apathy. Notices have been put up in banks, warning people of strict legal consequences if they attack bank employees. But the malady is deeper, according to experts.

Mounting service charges

One of the main conditions of the scheme is that the bank account has to be linked to the beneficiary’s Aadhaar card. While several women had opened bank accounts, especially during the launch of the Jan Dhan Yojana, a financial inclusion programme of the Government of India launched in 2014, several accounts were dormant or were without KYC documents, explains Devidas Tuljapurkar, General Secretary of Maharashtra State Bank Employees’ Association. (KYC or ‘know your customer’ is a mandatory process to verify customer identity and prevent fraudulent activities.) “When these women went to banks in the hope of getting ₹1,500, they were asked to update their KYC details or link their accounts with their Aadhaar. Some of them say they lost some money due to the automatic charges levied on the dormant accounts,” he says.

In Loni Kalbhor, a village about 11 km east of Pune in western Maharashtra, Saguna Lonkar was aghast when she went to the bank to claim benefits under the scheme and found that a ₹92,000 penalty had been imposed on her account. She had been running a small business. The account became dormant from 2020 after she went bankrupt. Lonkar learned that approximately twice each month, ACH (Automated Clearing House) return charges of ₹354 had been imposed on her account. (ACH transactions are electronic money transfers between financial institutions that are often used for payroll, bills, taxes, and other financial activities.) In addition, other charges were levied. When the government transferred money under the Ladki Bahin Yojana, the penalty finally stood at ₹89,503.

There are service charges for all bank services, including closure of an account. When such charges are automatically debited, bank employees cannot reverse them. When hundreds of beneficiaries throng the banks at the same time to claim benefits under schemes such as this, the responsibility of breaking this news falls on the branch employee. The employees fall in the line of fire. Interviews with bank employees and account holders reveal how people are desperate for the money, and feel that they have been cheated. According to bank employees’ unions, during the election season, the government is keen to show that it has disbursed the money. Banks are short-staffed and cannot deal with the serpentine queues. As patience wears out and service provision takes time, employees are sometimes assaulted.

The problems in banks

Tuljapurkar says this is “commodification of poverty and helplessness”. He says the poor are vulnerable and want to take whatever help the state offers. During election time, the political leaders take advantage of this helplessness. “This is election season. Why are bank employees being attacked now? It didn’t happen earlier. Today, bank employees are well-off. They are paid better than before. The people who come to public sector banks are often poor. There is a financial gap between them. The poor believe that banks don’t fulfil their demands. In fact, they believe that they are the ones that create impediments. So, there is anger against the system,” he argues.

Tuljapurkar says this is a larger systemic issue that needs to be addressed. “It is cruel that the banks don’t employ security guards for the safety of their own branch staff. If the government does not provide protection, the bank management should. In a recent meeting, the State government told the SLBC (State Level Bankers’ Committee) that it disburses ₹8,000 crore through these banks and that the banks should spend on security,” he adds.

Vitthal Mane, convenor of United Forum of Bank Unions, says public sector banks are understaffed, which is why employees are being attacked. “Though processes are digitised, the people who come from rural areas or who are poor approach banks. Policymakers think that since banking is digitised, staff members are not needed. That is not true. We need more tech-savvy staff to help those approaching banks. That is why we had organised a dharna in Mumbai. We made three demands: there should be new recruitment; safety must be ensured; and strict action must be taken against the culprits.”

The Hindu repeatedly contacted the SLBC representative, Satish Kumar, but he did not answer our detailed queries. However, an official who is not authorised to speak to the media admits that the issue is of serious concern. “This is a big issue and banks have been taking cognisance of it,” the official says.

The minutes of the meeting held at the Maharashtra State Secretariat on October 29 with the subject line, ‘Details of the meeting held for the bank transactions related to Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, chaired by Honourable Secretary of Women and Child Development department on 29/10/2024 at 3 pm’, reads: “For the implementation of Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, there is a massive crowd in the banks for opening bank accounts of the beneficiary women, linking the bank accounts with Aadhaar, doing KYC, the demand that the installment should not be adjusted against pending service charges or loan installments.”

The minutes of the meeting say that according to the Convenor of United Forum of Banks Union, “inappropriate incidents” were taking place against the bank employees “during this rush.” The note emphasises the need for adequate security measures and seeks Standard Operating Procedures from the banks that ensure the deducted banking service charges are refunded. It seeks more coordination of the police, the administration, and the banks for better security.

The government acknowledges that there is an issue and has said that a remedial plan should be in place. But there is no clarity yet on whether the banks will appoint private security guards or whether they expect the State machinery to provide security to the branches.

As of now, the addition of new members to the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana has stopped due to the Model Code of Conduct, which is in place as Maharashtra goes to the polls on November 20. Public sector bank employees are busy with election duty and bank responsibilities and say they live in the hope that they won’t be attacked any more.

Political issue

Meanwhile, the Opposition has slammed the government over the lack of financial planning while rolling out the scheme. “The previous Uddhav Thackeray government had rolled out a loan waiver of ₹36,000 crore for the farmers of Maharashtra. How did that not lead to any strain on the bank employees?” says Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Sanjay Raut. “Whether it was the note-ban decision or the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, they have been brought about without any financial planning and only for electoral benefits. When we come to power, we will fit it in the legal and financial framework.”

Even as the government tries to stop the attacks, employees are worried. The police acted swiftly to register a case against Pandurang Devkar, a bank employee, but he still fears for his life. “I was followed, abducted, and taken to a crematorium. I was beaten black and blue with rods and sharp weapons,” Devkar says.

“Whenever the government wants to bring about such populist schemes, they should take the banks and financial institutions into confidence. They should let us know about their plans, take feedback from us, and then introduce these schemes. That way, there will be better coordination and less stress on banking structures,” he adds.

Names and details have been withheld to protect identities

vinaya.deshpande@thehindu.co.in

Published - November 02, 2024 03:18 am IST