Aadhaar barrier, bank rigidity 'pushed' Odisha tribal to dig up sister’s remains

When 65-year-old Jitu Munda walked into the Odisha Gramin Bank’s Malliposhi branch on the afternoon of April 27, carrying a jute sack on his shoulder, no one expected what lay inside. The sack contained the skeletal remains of his sister, Kalra Munda, whom he had buried on January 26.

He had dug up her grave that morning. His reason, he later told investigators, was simple: the bank had refused for months to let him withdraw her savings of Rs 19,600 without proof of her death.
“A full stomach is like a guest for us, while hunger has become a family member,” Jitu Munda told a fact-finding team from the Right to Food Campaign, which visited his village Dianali on May 8. The team’s report, released this week, describes the incident not as a sudden act of desperation but as “the culmination of a long sequence of institutional failures.”
Kalra Munda, a widow, had been living with her brother for years. The household owned no land, survived on daily wage labour, and often begged for meals. She died on January 26 after a prolonged illness, during which Jitu was unable to withdraw money from her account for medical treatment. He had tried repeatedly, but the bank said she needed to be present. By then, she was bedridden.
After her death, the bank still refused to release the funds. Each time, Jitu was told he needed a death certificate. Yet for over three months, no such certificate was issued—even though her death was known to the local ASHA worker, Anganwadi worker, and panchayat functionaries.
“Standard procedure requires the death certificate to be issued within seven days,” the report notes. The Community Health Centre at Patna issued the certificate only on April 29—two days after the incident made national headlines. “That entitlements denied for years were granted within days, only after media attention, is the strongest possible evidence that there was no real legal or procedural barrier—only administrative neglect,” the report states.
The report also found that Jitu Munda himself had been denied a ration card and old-age pension for which he was eligible, solely because he could not produce his lost Aadhaar card. With help from a former ward member, his Aadhaar was traced and reissued on April 25. Again, only after the incident did the administration issue him a ration card and enrol him for a pension of Rs 1,000 per month, released on April 30.
On the day of the incident, Jitu walked barefoot, wearing only a lungi, carrying the sack for 2-3 km under the scorching sun. At the bank, he sat on the verandah for two hours. When police arrived, they asked him to walk back—still barefoot, still carrying the remains—while they travelled by vehicle. No transport was arranged.
“The conduct of the police personnel… calls for scrutiny,” the report says. It has recommended an inquiry into why no vehicle was provided.
The bank, which has only three regular staff members, has also come under sharp criticism. “No member of the bank staff appears to have made any genuine effort to understand his circumstances,” the report observes. An internal inquiry has been recommended.
The fact-finding team has urged the Odisha government to issue binding instructions that no death certificate take more than seven days to issue, and that no citizen be denied a ration card or pension solely for lack of an Aadhaar card. It has also called for continuing welfare support for Jitu Munda, noting that his brother and sister-in-law were found severely malnourished and living in a dilapidated house.
“This is not the story of a single dramatic act,” the report concludes. “It is the story of a slow, systematic and entirely preventable failure of the State’s responsibility to protect the dignity and survival of its most vulnerable citizens.”