SBI resolves ST-status hurdle for Arunachal Christians

GUWAHATI

The Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF) has welcomed the resolution of a software glitch that prevented Christian applicants from selecting “Scheduled Tribe” when opening bank accounts or filling out know-your-customer (KYC) forms with the State Bank of India (SBI).

In a letter dated October 14, the head of SBI’s regional business office in Itanagar said the issue raised by the forum had been resolved. The bank said its information technology team had modified the validation logic across the YONO and re-KYC platforms to fix the glitch. 

On October 5, the ACF complained that SBI’s software disabled the ST option when an applicant selected "Christian" as the religion, forcing them to tick the "General" category. Pointing out that tribal status in Arunachal Pradesh was not contingent on religious affiliation under the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order of 1950, the forum said such software was “potentially discriminatory”.

“The SBI is not the competent authority to delist a tribal Christian customer who possesses a valid ST certificate. The SBI cannot automatically classify a tribal Christian under the General category solely based on their declared religion,” the ACF letter stated.

The forum appreciated the SBI’s action and said, “The resolution is a positive outcome of our engagement with the banking authorities. Our intervention aimed to ensure that eligible Christian members of the ST communities could correctly record their religion and category in the bank’s digital system,” an ACF spokesperson said.