One of the biggest players in the private sector of the banking game, Axis bank, has made its alliances abundantly clear.

The bank, on the third anniversary of the abolition of section 377 that criminalised homosexuality, has announced policies and practices that are favourable for its customers and employees that belong to the LGBTQIA+ community, as part of efforts to encourage “diversity, equity and inclusion” in its work environment.

The policies are removing gender as a barrier from the paperwork.

Now, all customers are allowed to open a joint savings and term deposit account with someone of the same sex as well. Customers are also allowed to make their partners nominees regardless of gender as well.

Moreover, customers from the community will have the option to choose their title as ‘Mx’ while filling out forms.

The bank has become one of the first to announce new policies and practices for its customers and employees from the LGBTQ community, under a new campaign named DilSeOpen.

Rolling out its #ComeAsYouAre charter on Monday, the private sector lender said that in the spirit of the apex court judgement and its wider ESG commitments, the new policies and practices to be implemented will embrace diversity, equity and inclusion within the organization and for its customers.

The workspace would also see change. Employees are free to dress as per their gender expression and use the restroom that goes according to the same, too.

Employees can now list their partner’s name for mediclaim benefits irrespective of their gender, caste, sex or marital status.

Understanding that there can be pushback redressal in the form of HR Policies is already in place.

Rajesh Dahiya, Executive Director, Axis Bank, said, “At Axis, we have put our focus on diversity, equity and inclusion that respects and recognises the importance of distinctive life journeys and several identities that extend beyond the paradigms of gender. This for us is as much about the invisible markers as it is about the visible ones. It is our belief that it fosters a culture of innovation and leverages the multiple talent pools that exist in a rich demography like ours.”