An SBI circular, issued on December 31, refrained women who are more than three-month pregnant from joining work. The bank’s notice termed these women “temporarily unfit.”
Taking cognisance of the same, Delhi Commission for Women’s chairperson, Swati Maliwal’s protest and tweets have jointly yielded results.
“State Bank of India seems to have issued guidelines preventing women who are over three months pregnant from joining service and 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,” Ms Maliwal tweeted, adding that it could also mean depriving the women of maternity benefits under law.
The circular states that she will be “considered temporarily unfit and she may be allowed to join within four months after delivery of child.”
Further, Ms Maliwal noted that the matter is “very serious as the candidate will not be accorded immediate joining upon selection. This action of the bank appears to be discriminatory and illegal as it contradicts maternity benefits provided under the Code of Social Security, 2020.” The DCW asked SBI to explain the process behind formation of these guidelines and to give the names of officials who approved them.
Late Friday evening, SBI tweeted it has withdrawn the guidelines for pregnant women. “Revised instructions about the recruitment of pregnant women candidates stands withdrawn,” read the corrected tweet.
Earlier, in the case of new recruits, women candidates up to six-month pregnant could join. All they had to do was submitting a certificate from the gynaecologist that taking up employment at that stage would not affect health adversely.
