Two days after National Herald¸ which first published a report highlighting State Bank of India’s revised guidelines for hiring pregnant women, the country’s largest bank has withdrawn the controversial circular that barred women candidates who are pregnant above three months from being hired at the bank.In view of the public sentiments, SBI has decided to keep the revised instructions regarding recruitment of pregnant women candidates in abeyance and continue with the existing instructions in the matter, the bank said in a statement. However, its employees union is not satisfied with the response as the earlier norms too discriminate against pregnant women.In an e-circular issued on December 31, 2021, the SBI had informed its local offices across the country of its revised medical standards. According to these norms, a woman who is pregnant for more than three months would be considered “temporarily unfit” and would be allowed to rejoin work only four months after delivering a child.The pregnancy-related amendment was a stark change from the bank’s earlier guideline which stated that women candidates could be appointed in the bank up to six months of pregnancy, provided the candidate furnished a certificate from specialist gynecologist that her taking up bank’s employment at that stage was in no way likely to interfere with her pregnancy or the normal development of the foetus, or was not likely to cause her miscarriage or otherwise to adversely affect her health.
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