Narrating the pain, suffering and trauma of the common man after demonetisation of two high denomination currency notes and leaving out its aftermath impact on banking staff will reflect only one side of the story. The degree and the magnitude of the problems may vary in and out of the banks but in no sense can be ignored because under both situations it has left tremendous social and psychological impact.
The acute shortage and supply of notes to the banks and limited disbursal has resulted in tensions, heated exchange of words, quarrels, abuses, insults on bank staff. In the face of massive pressure and limited resources and staff, the bankers in order to cope up with the situation had to work for long hours without proper arrangement. The mounting pressure could be imagined from the fact that many bank employees have died on duty.
The hectic schedule of working hours no doubt has been appreciated by many but at the same time it has taken a toll on their health. Some of them have complained of back pain, headache, muscular pains, and giddiness.
An Indian Bank official told Radiance that despite huge shortage of manpower and new notes they were trying their best to distribute cash to the maximum people. “The daily rush and the unexpected pressure is also likely to impact staff psychologically now and thereafter. We have separate queues for senior citizens, women and students. And sooner or later we will have to move towards digital India,” he added.
CH Venkatachalam, chief of All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) earlier suggested to RBI to stop banking operations for at least two weeks till adequate money is available to ease the mounting pressure each passing day.
During Prime Time debate, with Ravish Kumar on NDTV, JP Sharma, vice president of All India Bank Employee Association said earlier there were around 50 to 60 transactions a day, these days there are over thousands transactions. Cashiers can hardly concentrate in such an atmosphere and therefore losing their own personal cash as fine against mistakes committed by them due to pressure. State Bank Staff Union’s Gunasekaran has claimed some cashiers have even incurred loss of Rs 8,000 or Rs 10,000 and are required to pay it from their own accounts.
According to media reports there are 10 lakh bank employees and they have catered to almost 25 crore people in earlier days. There are over 2 lakh posts which are yet to be filled from 1987 to 2007.