Even while decisions are being taken to distribute all forms of government benefits, subsidies and pensions through nationalised banks, majority of bank receipts, forms and documents are often available only in English or Hindi. Documents or forms in Malayalam, which now boasts of the classical language status, are rarely found in the nationalised or new-generation banks in the state.
The district-based Aksharam Kala Sahitya Vedi is planning to launch an extensive campaign demanding to make documents and receipts in Malayalam mandatory in all banks in the state.
“Even while the fact remains that most people who go to banks are conversant only in Malayalam, you hardly find a bank document or form in Malayalam. People who don’t know English or Hindi, have to often depend on others. This offers scope to fraudulent activities and several such cases have been reported,” lawyer and Aksharam secretary V K Santosh Kumar said.
Santosh Kumar noted that banks in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states had included Tamil and Kannada respectively. “There are banks which provide receipts in Tamil and Kannada in various parts of Kerala. But even the State Bank of Travancore, based in the state, has not taken an initiative to make available all forms and documents in Malayalam,” he said.
Santosh Kumar said that being the official language of the country, Hindi was being given great importance by all nationalised banks and a committee existed to check the implementation of the language in banks. The committee has also recommended to include local languages in bank documents, but bank authorities in the state have turned a blind eye to the recommendations, Kumar alleged.