The Great Insurance Blunder

 

The PMJJBY, PMSBY and PMAPY were introduced by government of India as social security schemes primarily targeting the citizens comprising unorganised work force in the country.

But for implementing these schemes, the unofficial dispenser of government schemes - Indian Public Sector Banks were made responsible as usual.

Initially the expected subscription for these schemes were projected to be humongous, however, there was not much interest garnered from the target quarters of the citizenry .

Slowly, the falling subscription rates for the schemes resulted in increased cost of subscription and the increase in turn pushed the schemes farther away from the intended beneficiaries.

This is when, the Public Sector banks who were under pressure from the government to increase the subscription, started improvising in the most unprofessional way possible.

That is, the banks started creating tools to apply for PMJJBY and PMSBY schemes in bulk and pressurized the field officials by setting astronomical targets to each of them.

There is only so much that these field officials can do to withhold the pressure, and when they succumbed to the pressure from higher officials, the flood gates were opened – lakhs of individual customers’ accounts were debited for the subscription amounts without them applying for the schemes by the Public sector Banks with negligible cognizance for customer trust and professional obligation of being public servants or bankers.

The trade unions of PBSs were also mute spectators and got complacent to the bank managements and started encouraging their members to collect applications from the customers whose accounts have been debited, in order to establish customer’s intent to subscribe to the schemes.

The matter started seeping into the mainstream media way back in Dec 2022 with  a news article in ‘THE WIRE’ detailing the strategies and means that banks use to avert customers who complain about the issue.

Among the banks that had the dubious fame in this regard are State Bank of India and Canara Bank.

Both these banks have resorted to threatening their field officials of transfers, deputations and departmental actions in order to ensure availability of applications for the insurance schemes from the customers who were enrolled through the tools of the bank.

Snap audits of availability of application in this regard have been commenced by the banks as an eye wash for the public and as an option that threatens the field officials into following any means possible to make available the applications.

The field officials of these banks are in extreme fear of departmental actions and pressure to create applications for the customers who have been enrolled by any means possible.

These acts of the public sector banks have decimated the trust built among the customers in the last 65 years and has critically damaged the customer approvability of the banks.

The archaic trade unions in both State Bank of India and Canara Bank, that have always stood firms against such blemishes to the banks, have also compromised themselves and are today aiding detrimental activities of the bank managements.

The trade unions have stooped so low as to start encouraging the field officials to acquire applications for the schemes to save the face of the bank’s management.

The field officials in this case are constrained from taking to whistle blowing as such acts are immediately putout by the higher officials due to rampant exchange of whistle blowing information amongst the higher officials of the banks.

Most whistle blowing policies of Public Sector banks mandate the identity of the whistle blower is to kept confidential and that they are protected.

Instead the identity of whistle blowers in Public Sector banks are shared to the officials against whom whistle is blown thereby giving free hand to such officials to initiate any action against the whistle blowers and are persecuted with immediate actions including false allegations and unnecessary transfers.

Today, the Public Sector Banks that were once the pillars of Indian economic development, are in shambles when it comes to customer approval and staff welfare.

The internal checks and balances defined through well established policies in these banks are thrown to air by the present day administrators to mute the voice of the very few who dare to bring wrongdoing to the mainstream.

Customers of Public Sector banks should also understand that just because their accounts are debited for the subscription amount doesn’t means that they will have a insurance policy against their name.

Unless customers sign the applications for subscription of such schemes and the applications referred to insurance firms for further processing, policies are not generated against the respective customer.

Therefore, they should understand that if their account is debited for subscription for any of these schemes without their due consent, they have been enrolled into the scheme only for their subscription and without their application forms they are not eligible for claiming the insurance that they have been paying for.

At the end of the day it is the customers who are put to undue distress by ill conceived action plans by institutions that missell or force sell insurance schemes of the government just to achieve a target fixed by the very institution.

The Public Sector Banks are committing grave injustice to their customers by these activities and should immediately install standard operating procedures to resolve the matter.

It is high time that general citizens also check their accounts for a debit for subscription to PMSBY or PMJJBY or PMAPY and take it up with their respective banks, if they have not subscribed to them.

The government and the Public Sector banks should acknowledge this gargantuan blunder and rectify the scheme subscription figures claimed and return the excess money collected.

Let us share such issues in the public forums and broadcast the ills of such  overreaching  endeavors just to achieve some unscientific targets.