The incident happened in the Jharigaon block of Nabrangpur district of Odisha on April 17.
In a shocking incident from Odisha, a 70-year-old woman was seen walking barefoot for several kilometres only to collect her pension from a bank.
According to a video that has gone viral on social media, the frail woman can be seen walking barefoot in scorching heat with the support of a broken chair. The incident happened in the Jharigaon block of Nabrangpur district of Odisha on April 17.
The elderly woman, Surya Harijan, is very poor. Her older son is working as a migrant labourer in a different state. She is staying with her younger son's family and he makes his living grazing other people's cattle. The family has no land to plough and lives in a hut.
The lady went to the bank to get the pension, but she was told that her thumb is not matching the records, and she was forced to return home.
Reacting to the incident, the State Bank of India (SBI) manager has claimed that she is facing trouble in withdrawing money because of her "broken fingers" and the bank is working to resolve the problem.
"Her fingers are broken, so she is facing trouble withdrawing money. She has been given Rs 3,000 manually from the bank. We will resolve the problem soon," the SBI manager of the Jharigaon branch said.
The State Bank of India also issued a statement and said that "SBI Jharigaon, immediately paid the pension amount by debiting the amount manually from the pensioner's account. She has also been reassured by the branch manager of the delivery of pension at her doorstep going forward."
The SBI has also donated a wheelchair to the woman to "facilitate her movement."
The bank said that "necessary protocols are in place to address such issues" but has also initiated reiteration of the guidelines branches "in case of any issues faced by them in serving our customers."
The Sarpanch of her village also said that they have discussed listing such helpless people in the village and providing pension money to them.