The Delhi Commission of Women Chairperson Swati Maliwal, on Monday, 20 June, issued a notice to Indian Bank amid reports of the bank preventing women who are “more than three-month pregnant” from joining service, despite being selected through due process.
The bank clarified 12-week pregnant candidates can join on production of a certificate from a medical practitioner.
Pointing out that they have learnt that such women would be considered “temporarily unfit” and would be denied immediate joining, Maliwal observed that the delay would subsequently lead to loss of seniority for the women.
“This is a very serious matter. The alleged action of the bank appears to be discriminatory and illegal as it’s contrary to the Maternity Benefits provided under ‘The Code of Social Security 2020.’ Further, it discriminates on the basis of sex which is against fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India.” – Delhi Commission for Women Chairperson Swati Maliwal
- “The Tamil Nadu Grama Bank (TNGB) sponsored by Indian Bank has also issued similar guidelines prohibiting women with more than six months of pregnancy from joining its services and laid a condition that they would be allowed to join only after three months of delivery after medical examination. This retrograde clause is highly discriminatory to women.”
- Indian Bank Statement
Amid all the outrage bubbling over this evidently discriminatory policy, the Indian Bank has clarified in a statement that there is no new circular and that “we wish to inform that the bank has not made any changes to the existing guidelines.” - When SBI Had Done Something Similar…
When the State Bank of India had (on 31 December 2021) reportedly informed its local offices of its revised medical standards, as per which, a woman who was more than three-months pregnant could not join work until after four months of delivering a child, the staff union had dubbed it an attempt to subvert social security code on maternity benefits. - What Does the Constitution Say?
While it has been argued in similar cases (like the SBI case) that such circulars are used to subvert the benefits provided by the Social Security Code, a regulation preventing a 12-week pregnant woman from joining work is not directly illegal as per the code. This is because the code doesn’t dwell into the question of a woman being prevented from going to work, when she wants to, at all.
In a 2021 judgment, in a batch of pleas by women officers challenging the rejection of their permanent commission applications, the top court had asked the army to reconsider their applications. The judgment authored by Justice DY Chandrachud also said:
“We must recognise here that the structures of our society have been created by males and for males. As a result, certain structures that may seem to be the “norm” and may appear to be harmless, are a reflection of the insidious patriarchal system.”
Source: The Quint
