Lucknow HDFC Bank employee dies at work, colleagues suspect work pressure

A woman employee of HDFC Bank in Lucknow died at work on Tuesday (September 24, 2024) after collapsing on the ground allegedly due to work pressure.

The employee, Sadaf Fatima, who was posted as a additional deputy vice-president at HDFC Bank’s Vibhuti Khand branch in Lucknow, suddenly became unconscious and collapsed on the floor at around 3 p.m. on Tuesday (September 24, 2024). Her body has been sent for post-mortem and it is suspected that she suffered a heart attack. The deceased woman’s colleagues said that she was under stress due to work pressure. Fatima, in her 40s, was from the Wazirganj locality in Lucknow.

Meanwhile, opposition parties blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s failed economic policies for work pressure and stress in government and private jobs. The incident in Lucknow comes to light amid a nationwide outrage over the death of an Ernst & Young employee in Pune allegedly due to “excessive workload”.

Reacting sharply over the incident, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said the death of the employee was extremely worrying and was a symbol of the “current economic pressure in the country”. Mr. Yadav added that the real measure of the progress of any country is not the increase in the figures of services or products but it is how mentally free, healthy and happy are citizens. 

“The news of the death of a female HDFC employee in Lucknow after falling from her chair in the office due to work pressure and stress is extremely worrying. Such news is a symbol of the current economic pressure in the country. All companies and government departments will have to think seriously in this regard. This is an irreparable loss of the country’s human resources. Such sudden deaths bring the working conditions under question. The real measure of the progress of any country is not the increase in the figures of services or products but it is how mentally free, healthy and happy are people,” Mr. Yadav wrote on X.

The former Uttar Pradesh CM added, “Due to the failed economic policies of the BJP government, the business of companies has reduced so much that to save their business, they make fewer people do many times more work. The BJP government is as much responsible for such sudden deaths as the statements of BJP leaders that mentally demoralize the public. To overcome this problem, companies and government departments should make active and meaningful efforts for immediate improvement,”.