·         (B) I have also come across a recruitment drive by Indian Overseas Bank under the heading “Recruitment of 480 Probationary Officers Through Tie Up with Academic Institution”.  A reading of the said advertisement is a BIG  cruel joke on poor Indians, on similar lines as statements of Farooq Abdula that poor can get food for Re1 and Raj Babbar’s claim that in Rs12 you can have full meal in Mumbai.   I would like to highlight the following from the said advertisement :-

o   The ad reads ‘IOB has entered into MoU with MaGE, Bangalore to provide World Calss training in Banking and Finance to prospective candidates aspiring to join IOB as PO so that THEY ARE FULLY  EQUIPPED TO DISCHARGE THEIR DUTIES EFFECTIVELY FROM DAY ONE OF JOINING THE SERVICES OF THE BANK;

o   The course Fee will be Rs 3.30 lakhs plus service tax, which will be paid by the selected candidates (This can be taken as Education Loan from IOB) – The current RoI is 12.25% which translates into about Rs 3400 per month in interest or EMI of about Rs 7400/- pm for 5 years.

o   Candidates selected for appointment will be required to execute a Financial Service Bond for rendering service for a   minimum  period of 5 years. The amount of the Financial Service Bond presently is  Rs 2,00,000/- along with liquidation of  the loan amount at commercial rate of interest (if any) and the stipend received during the training period.

o   Most of other conditions are same as given for IBPS CWE except that here the Fee payable is Rs 500 instead of Rs 600

PS Banks keep on beating drums that they are pro-poor and our Government (now in election mode)  daily issues statements to show that they have a concern for the poor.

Leaving aside the controversy regarding fudged records for Below Poverty Line data, the latest GoI  data says that 22% of the population is Below Poverty Line.   Under the Food Security Bill,  GoI says that subsidies food is required to be supplied to 67% of our population. 

An analysis of the above brings us to following  simple conclusions:-

(a)   A  youth from  22% of population (i.e. BPL) intends to appear for Bank Clerk or PO Exam, he must remain hungry for at least 75 days (i.e. to save Rs 2000 @ Rs 27 per day) – this does not include any expenditure for his books and other preparations;

(b)   A youth from 67% of population (i.e. eligible for food at subsidies rates under Food Security Bill) may need to remain hungry for about 30 days if he / she decides to appear for Bank recruitment examination;

(c)    In case of recruitment to Indian Overseas Bank under Training + Job scheme,  it can be only upper class of top 5% Indians who can afford the same.   In case the youth decides to avail of Educational Loan, he will have to shell out about Rs 8000/- pm for first 5 years of job, which is about  30% of his Gross Salary as per present scales. 

Now let us compare the recruitment of PS Banks with top IT or other sector leading companies like TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Hindustan Leaver, P&G etc.   These companies too recruit workforce in thousands every year, much much more than most of our individual PS Banks.  Do they charge any fee for holding tests ?  Most of them even pay airfare if candidates are called for interviews from outstations.  How can they afford all this and able to get the get talent?   If  CMDs of PS Banks think of this, they will realize that  PS Banks are actually exploiting the unemployed youth.   All these companies give training to the new recruits at their own expense unlike IOB who has openly declared that they want Rs 3.30 lacs for training so that selected candidates  ARE FULLY  EQUIPPED TO DISCHARGE THEIR DUTIES EFFECTIVELY FROM DAY ONE OF JOINING THE SERVICES OF THE BANK.   I am not sure whether anywhere else in the world with such a large people below poverty line, specially in the PS Banks, we have such training fees for offering jobs.   It is disgusting and beyond my comprehension.   It indicates bankruptcy on the part of the HR people who have given such advertisements.

Only recently (28^th July, 2013), a full page Ad by Indian Army has appeared for Pre Final Year University Entry Scheme for Men Permanent Commission (July 2015) has appeared.  Although it is for Engineers recruitment, yet It does not require to apply ONLINE.  I could not find mention of any fees for even applying or for training.   Thus everything is free and there is no bond etc though certain other terms like to remain unmarried during training etc apply.

Mr K C Chakrabarty, DG at RBI, who at the drop of hat, is ready to give a long lecture on Financial Inclusion, seems to be totally unaware of ground realities.   If he dreams of bring Financial Inclusion in banking without recruiting in banks from the poorest of the society,  it is nothing but a Day Dream. 

P.  Chidabaram, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tiwari, Rahul Gandhi who talk day and night about Food Security Bill needs to ponder on the issue as to whether we need to subsidies food for the poor through out his life or give him opportunity to at least rise above the poverty line by offering opportunity to appear for exam at free of cost.

It is a shame for CMDs of Banks that they want to exploit the unemployed youth by extracting money in the name of offering jobs to them.    These top brass CMDs do not lose an opportunity to have a photo session with Finance Minister by offering him a cheque of few hundred crores as dividend, and flash the same in all leading newspapers next morning by giving free lunches / dinners to news reporters of newspapers and news channels.  Have they ever thought that merely a sum of Rs 3 to 4 crores annually can give an opportunity  to lakhs of our poor unemployed youth to aspire for a dream in banking?    The huge dividends paid to GoI is drained in corruption.

In my youth I have done my Diploma in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management and even submitted a thesis on bank recruitments.   I want to remind  HR people in PS Banks  that people from poor strata of the society are mostly more hard working and / or ready to work in remote areas then candidates selected from rich strata or metros.   HR policy makers also needs to be aware that in case you fleece a candidate at the time of recruitment or put him under debt (through Educational Loan as per IOB advertisement), the candidate is likely to have a negative opinion right from beginning or he may indulge in corrupt practices to return the money he has borrowed.    It is a well known fact in HR circles that if you try to hold a person for too long by Bond or debt, the employee is likely to become disgruntled and finally a liability for the organization.   However, HR people in PS Banks follow only one policy – sycophancy and toeing the line of CMD.  They do not have any independent opinion of their owns.

It is a time for our PS Bank heads and our Ministers to realize the anguish being faced by YOUTH OF INDIA to find a job, or they will come on streets as has happened recently in cases of reservation in UPPSC exam and protests for removing the marks criteria in banking sector.

In the end I can only wish a good luck to poor aspirants for banking jobs and offer them free study material based on what I have learnt during my service.  I hope CMDs of banks too will review the fees to be realised from unemployed youth.    If you know any poor person (with a facility of internet), please tell him about the free content available at our above referred website so that at least he / she can save some money for studies.   If he / she does not have free internet facility, try to offer him this facility for few hours in a week so that he can upgrade his competition skills.