Banks To Remain Shut For 21 Days In October? News Headlines Mislead

Several websites and news outlets have published stories with headlines stating that banks would remain shut for 21 days in October. This news is misleading.

While the headlines are sensational, they do clarify in their stories that this 21-day closure is not simultaneous across the country and vary by state and the local festival. They have also provided a state-wise festivity list where banks will remain shut. But the headline makes it seem like this is a pan-India occurrence and the banks will be shut down simultaneously for 21 days.

Examples of their headlines can be seen below.

Here is a screenshot of the Livemint (an archived version can be found here)

Similarly, Moneycontrol's headline can be seen below (and an archived version can be found here).

Below is the screenshot of India.com. An archived version can be seen here.

The Economic Times recently had a similar headline - which they edited later. Below is their tweet on September 28 and their edited headline accessed today.

An archive of the Economic Times can be found here.

According to the website of Reserve Bank of India, from where this list was taken, public and private sector banks will be shut across 21 days - but they are distributed across various festivals in different states on different days. For example, in cities like Gangtok, there are occasions where banks would be shut for four days and three days around Dussehra and Diwali consecutively. Further, even Patna and Ranchi has three days off consecutively.

These include several holidays like Durga Puja and Dussehra, Milad-un-Nabi, Karwa Chauth, Diwali and Chhath Puja. A total of 15 holidays plus six weekend days have been included to come to the 21-day figure. The full list of holidays can be found below.

The Reserve Bank of India's list can be found here (users can check the dates of holidays by state in a particular month and can even filter by month).

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