SBI Issues New Rules For Pregnant Women Candidates, Faces Criticism From Employees

SBI new rules for pregnant women candidates state that woman candidates with more than three months of pregnancy will be deemed ‘temporarily unfit’ and may join back the bank within four months of delivery of the child. The employees have expressed their discontent with the new guidelines.

SBI news rules for pregnant women candidates consider women who have been pregnant for more than three months as ‘temporarily unfit’ to work in the bank and they may join back within four months of delivery of the child as per the new guidelines.

The new SBI policy will be effective from the date of approval, that is, December 21, 2021 for recruitment and April 1, 2022 with respect to promotions.

Earlier, the bank recruited women with upto six months of pregnancy subjecting to various conditions which included a gynaecologist-approved certificate stating that the employment at the pregnancy stage will not hamper the candidate’s pregnancy or development of a normal foetus or will not hamper the mother’s health adversely in any way.

The modified rules have been subject to criticism from various authorities as well as the SBI staff itself.

Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam, in his plea to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, demanded the immediate withdrawal of the guidelines issued by the bank stating that it “undermines women’s rights”. All India State Bank Of India Employees’ Association also wrote to the SBI management urging them to withdraw the SBI new rules for pregnant women.

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General Secretary of the Association condemned the bank’s new guidelines for violating women’s reproductive and employment rights saying, “It cannot be forced upon a woman to have a choice between bearing a child and employment as it interferes both with her reproductive rights and her right to employment and such an action cannot have any place in the present modern era.” He also mentioned that the amendment is prejudicial and discriminatory against womanhood as it treats pregnancy as a disability.

In 2009, the bank had issues the same proposal but withdrew soon after it faced backlash.