Covid-19: ‘Indian banks lost 1,200 employees in pandemic’, says body
New Delhi: Unlike other frontline workers, they were unsung heroes who seldom hit the headlines. Even amid lockdowns, they worked tirelessly in banks, often lonely, before some of them succumbed to the pandemic.
Indian banks lost nearly 1,200 officials and employees and many more are infected, underscoring the heavy toll the coronavirus has taken in the South Asian country currently battling the pandemic’s second wave.
“We have lost more than 1,000 colleagues already,” S. Nagarajan, general secretary of the All India Bank Officers’ Association said, according to media reports.
C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association, the largest body of bank workers, said that 1,200 employees had died due to the virus. “Not all banks are forthcoming in sharing the details and compensation policies for the families of those who died because of this virus,” he added.
With nearly 2.5 crore people infected so far in India and over 274,000 dead amid the world’s fastest-growing outbreak, many Indian states remain under varying degrees of lockdown with strict stay-at-home orders.
But the banking sector, as an essential service, is partially exempt from the lockdown orders. Lenders are allowed in some cases to call as much as 50% of their workforce in bank branches to avoid any disruption in banking services, reports said.
(VP)
