Banking on women

Dena Bank sets up a branch staffed only by women

Shyam Lal (name changed) stands tall with his double-barrelled gun outside Dena Bank’s newly-opened branch in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh. His is a lonely job at the best of times but he’s unlikely to find a counterpart inside the bank with whom he can chat in his spare time.

That’s because this tiny branch of five people in Raipur’s Sunder Nagar area is staffed only by women, right from the peon to the branch manager.

Part of Dena Bank’s programme to empower women, sources say this will be the first all-women branch in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh

The branch has less than 100 account holders at present but the number is expected to increase soon as a result of growing interest from women in opening a bank account here. “A woman customer can express her views more liberally and seek information more easily from women staffers,” says Manju Agrawal, who has opened an account here.

Women employees, she thinks, can read the sentiments of women customers more accurately, a factor that will help address their grievances effectively.

Of course, there are male customers too but women think they can make this branch uniquely their own.

Not surprisingly, the branch, which opened for business this month, has become the centre of attention; it is receiving many visits from people curious to see how women can run an operation all by themselves. Which is why Shyam Lal, who refuses to reveal his real name, ensures maximum security for his charges inside. He never misses the opportunity to frisk men entering the branch and menacingly bars the way if anyone approaches the branch manager’s office.

Though Dena Bank has taken an innovative step in handing over operational command to women in the branch, it has not empowered them to speak to the media. “Sorry, I do not have permission to speak and give information about the branch,” says manager Manju Dheewar.

Even senior executives are reluctant to talk about it. “Yes, it is an innovative step, but the details will be given only by my superiors in the corporate office,” says Rohit Yadav, the bank’s regional manager.

Such reticence is odd since sources in the bank’s corporate office in Mumbai say the idea of an all-women branch came from local officials and stemmed from the fact that the region had surplus women employees.

A senior executive says the concept of an all-women branch has been started on an experimental basis. If it succeeds, the management may introduce it in other branches too.

Naturally, the women in the new Raipur branch are jubilant that the management is thinking on such lines. At the entrance, though, the ever-vigilant Shyam Lal is gloomy. That’s because he can hear whispers inside about the possibility of hiring a “gun-woman” instead of a “gun-man” to guard the branch.