CPI(M) MP flags 500 bank employee deaths due to work stress, urges end to 'slavery' in sector

Citing data provided in the Lok Sabha, the CPI(M) MP AA Rahim said that as of June 2025, 32,567 posts were lying vacant in public sector banks alone.

New Delhi: CPI(M) leader from Kerala AA Rahim on Thursday in the Rajya Sabha raised concern over alarming working conditions in public sector banks, claiming around 500 employees have died by suicide in the last decade due to work-related stress, harassment and workplace abuse.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Rahim cited multiple instances of bank employees taking their own lives, unable to cope with mounting work pressure and "impossible targets".

"I'm not able to bear it anymore. I've lost the will to live," a bank employee in Gujarat told a superior officer over the phone before committing suicide, the MP said.

He recounted several such incidents between 2021 and 2024, including a chief manager of Union Bank who hanged himself and wrote in his suicide note that "staff should not be assigned impossible targets..." A branch manager in Tamil Nadu ended his life, leaving behind a one-year-old daughter, while a 38-year-old bank manager hanged herself inside a bank in Kannur, Kerala, writing in her death note: "I'm unable to cope with the work pressure." "This list is endless, sir," Rahim told the House, adding that bank employees were "exhausted, overburdened and chronically understaffed".

He said even at night, bank employees could be seen working in public sector banks across the country.

Citing data provided in the Lok Sabha, the MP said that as of June 2025, 32,567 posts were lying vacant in public sector banks alone.

"The number of businesses and branches of public sector banks is increasing, but the number of staff is decreasing," he said.

Rahim alleged that the fundamental duty of the Indian public banking sector had "drastically changed" from making financial transactions easier for common people and ensuring their financial security to functioning as "a market for third-party products of Indian and foreign corporates".

He said unrealistic targets were being assigned to bank employees to sell third-party products such as private insurance and mutual funds, in addition to targets related to government schemes like Atal Pension Yojana and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana.

"Many employees are forced not to leave the bank even at night without achieving their daily target," the CPI(M) leader said.

"Stop the slavery in the Indian public banking sector," Rahim urged, calling for immediate intervention.