70-year-old Odisha woman walks barefoot with support of broken chair to get pension | Viral Video

A video of a 70-year-old woman, who hails from Jharigaon village in Odisha, walking barefoot for several kilometres with the help of a broken chair has gone viral. She had to go through this ordeal in order to collect her pension. The elderly woman, Surya Harijan, had to walk to one of the branches of the State Bank of India in the village to collect her pension amount.

The woman has two sons. While the elder one work as a migrant labourer in another state, the younger son makes his living grazing cattle of other villagers. She lives with the family of her younger son and walked for several kilometres to seek her monthly payment. 

However, the woman was told that her thumb did not match the records and was sent home without the pension.

When asked about the incident, the branch manager of the concerned branch said that the woman faced issues in withdrawing money as she has broken fingers. However, he said that the bank is trying to find a solution.

#WATCH | A senior citizen, Surya Harijan walks many kilometers barefoot with the support of a broken chair to reach a bank to collect her pension in Odisha's Jharigaon

SBI manager Jharigaon branch says, "Her fingers are broken, so she is facing trouble withdrawing money. We'll… pic.twitter.com/Hf9exSd0F0

— ANI (@ANI) April 20, 2023

"Her fingers are broken, so she is facing trouble withdrawing money. We'll resolve the problem soon," the SBI manager Jharigaon branch was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.

Reacting to the viral video, Union Finance Minister said that the Department of the Finance Services and the State Bank of India should take cognisance of the matter. 

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"Can see the manager of the @TheOfficialSBI responding but yet wish @DFS_India and @TheOfficialSBI take cognisance of this and act humanely. Are they no bank Mitra? @FinMinIndia," Sitharaman tweeted.