Right from the bankers to large scale and small scale industries, everyone vented their frustration at demonitisation, which was announced last year on November 8. But the voice of the common man, who was the most affected due to note ban, has not been heard enough. Most of them opined that with the passage of time, everything normalised, but they are the ones who felt most pain when suddenly notes in circulation was declared invalid. There was a drastic change in their way of life.
It was a sudden surprise for the common man as they had to undergo a harrowing time in order to withdraw their hard-earned money, day after day.
Supratim Bannerjee (67), a retired Government employee, said, “I used to draw my pension in the first week of the month. But after demonetisation, I could not draw my pension and had to face lots of problems on the financial front. One year down the line, money flow has definitely normalised but why did the Government have to put us through so much of hardships at allIJ”
Film-maker, lubdhak Chatterjee said, “It was so tiring for me to go to the bank four to five times to convert about Rs 10,000 of demonetised notes. One day, while I was in the midst of a huge line, I fell and injured my head. At that time I really had to struggle to manage my family expenses too.”
Most working men and women had to say that they suffered loss of income as they had to stand in long queues in order to exchange the old notes in return for new ones. “All of a sudden, I felt that somebody stole all my money and I was left with nothing. I had daily essentials to buy, I had to pay the school and tuition fees of my children. I could barely manage to garner Rs 4,000 from the bank, which did not meet my needs,” said Kanchan Jindal, a PR executive.
People did not know how to meet immediate financial commitments like paying house rent, children’s school fees and other monthly expenses. The common man also complained that the new Rs 2,000 notes would remain unused as most daily necessities like grocery, fuel and vegetables do not cost above Rs 500. Many even complained that although Rs 500 notes were available at ATMs, Rs 100 notes were not readily available.
“For quite a few months, the ATMs would dispense only Rs 2,000 notes. It was really difficult to get change or rather buy anything at all. The problem persists even today. While Rs 100 currency notes are still not available in ATM’s but we have got used to managing with the Rs 500 notes,” said Anish Mondal, a producer at the Rajya Sabha Television, adding, “but look, latest statistics released by the Reserve Bank of India showed 99 per cent return of the demonitised currency back into the system. So, was it worth so much of painIJ”
After all, it must also be remembered that over a 100 people died in queues after the announcement of the demonitisation scheme.