Crowded In India, Men Expelled From Banks For Entering Wearing Shorts

Illustration of a corner of the city in Mumbai (Photo by Yash Bhardwaj on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Starting from a tweet to finally make a scene in the virtual world in India. A man clashed with a public sector bank because he entered in shorts at one of its branches.

Quoted from the Independent, Monday, November 22, the man was identified by his first name Ashish on his Twitter account. He said he was denied entry at the State Bank of India (SBI) branch in the eastern city of Kolkata for wearing shorts.

In a tweet directed to SBI's official Twitter account, he said: “Hey @TheOfficialSBI went to one of your branches today wearing shorts, was told I had to go back in full pants as the branch expects customers to 'maintain modesty'. ”

He added: "Is there some kind of official policy on what customers can and cannot wear?"

He also posted a link to a news story from 2017 claiming a customer in the western city of Pune was also denied entry to an SBI outlet for wearing Bermuda shorts.

"It turns out I'm not the only one who experienced a similar incident," he said.

The bank's official accounts responded with assurances that no customers would be discriminated against because of their clothing choices.

“We understand and respect your concern. Let's take the opportunity to clarify that there is no set policy or dress code for our customers. They can dress up according to their choice and can take into account locally acceptable norms/traditions/cultures for such public places,” the bank's official account wrote.

Ashish's tweet drew responses from other customers who claimed they were denied entry for the same reason. Twitter user Ravinder Singh wrote "the same thing" happened to him in August last year.

Some users also criticized this "moral policing" by the bank. In 2018, the State Bank of India asked its employees to follow dress codes, and cosmetology and etiquette guidelines.

In a circular issued on January 6 2018, the bank said: “To ensure that an acceptable level of courtesy in the workplace is maintained, all employees must adhere to the model dress code.”

We understand and respect your concern. Let us take an opportunity to clarify that there is no policy or prescribed dress code for our customers. They can dress up as per their choice and may consider the locally acceptable norms/tradition/culture for a public place like (1/2)

— State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) November 18, 2021

Male employees are required to wear "smart formals" and women are "advised" to come in Indian or Western formal attire. At that time, the bank had a staff of 269,000 and more than 24,000 branches.

Ashish's problem was finally settled and resolved amicably. He said officials from the bank met him at his home to take care of the matter.

"I want to close this complaint and don't want any action against the staff," he said.