NEW DELHI: Kerala CPI-M leader AA Rahim in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday expressed concern over the alarming working conditions in government-run banks, claiming that nearly 500 employees have committed suicide in the last decade due to work-related stress, harassment and workplace abuse.
CPI-M MP flags death of 500 bank employees due to work stress, calls for end to ‘slavery’ in sectorRaising the issue at Zero Hour, Rahim cited multiple instances of bank employees taking their own lives, unable to cope with the workload and “impossible targets”.
“I can’t bear it anymore. I’ve lost the will to live,” a bank employee in Gujarat told a top official over the phone before committing suicide, the MP said.
He recounts 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 set 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 committed suicide inside a bank in Kannur, Kerala, writing in his death note: “I can’t handle the workload.”
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“The list is endless, sir,” Rahim told the House, adding that bank employees were “tired, overburdened and chronically understaffed”.
He said that bank employees are seen working in government banks across the country even at night.
Citing information provided in the Lok Sabha, the MP said that till June 2025, 32,567 posts were vacant in government banks alone.
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“The number of businesses and branches of public sector banks is increasing, but the number of employees is decreasing,” he said.
Rahim alleged that the fundamental responsibility of the Indian public banking sector had “drastically changed” from facilitating financial transactions for the common man and ensuring their financial security to acting as a “third-party product market for Indian and foreign corporates”.
He said that bank employees were set unrealistic targets for selling third-party products like personal insurance and mutual funds, apart from targets related to government schemes like Atal Pension Yojana and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana.
“Many employees are forced to leave the bank even at night without achieving their daily targets,” the CPI-M leader said.
“Stop slavery in the Indian public banking sector,” urged Rahim, calling for immediate intervention.
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