HYDERABAD: Even as the government marches ahead with its plan to usher in cashless transactions, citizens continue to grapple with reality in a post-demonetisation India.
From vendors to labourers, businessmen to film stars and to professors the cash crunch has taken a toll on everyone. PayTm, e-wallets and mobile wallets of the likes, has become a necessity, net banking transactions are soaring and PoS machines are everywhere and almost every business (big or small) is advertising the benefits of cashless transactions.
And how are people dealing with this sudden switch from paper to plastic currency? For Vasantha K, a school teacher in Madhapur, demonetisation has opened up new doors in digital transactions which she never would’ve thought of earlier. “I never used Ola Money or PayTm Wallet in Uber before demonetisation even though these facilities were available before. Now that I have to, I realised how easy and convenient it is to make online transactions. In India, we tend not to use certain things (which has obvious benefits) unless we are pushed to the brink,” she explains.
While Vasantha is an educated woman, those living below the poverty line are digitally handicapped and have nowhere to go.
“The owners in our flat told us about Internet and how we can use it for payment. But I don’t understand how it works and I need cash to survive. I went to the bank and stood for more than two hours but received only `2,000. Now, nobody is willing to give change for it,” laments Lakshmaiah, a watchman at an apartment in Himayatnagar.
To put things in perspective, for Lakshmaiah to use Paytm, he has to download the app using a smartphone (which he doesn’t own), and then to add money to his Paytm account, he has to use a debit card (which he doesn’t have) or net banking - which he has to activate with the bank, create an ID with a password, and then transfer funds after correctly inserting a PIN number and a one-time password (OTP).
“It can get quite exhausting even for educated people with access to Internet. I can only imagine the plight of those who are living in slums,” Swathi Rao, an IT professional, said.
But we often underestimate what the poor are capable of. Madhusudan, a cab driver in the city, has gone completely tech-savvy post demonetisation. “I learnt how to use my debit card for online transactions from a customer and since then I have been doing transactions online. As a JIO customer, Internet is free for me and all I need is a basic smartphone. I have taught people of my village to perform digital transactions,” he said.
However, the sudden shift to cashless transactions has been a difficult one.
“I have always made payments online or by swiping my debit card. At many places, swipe machines don’t work due to server issues and with no cash in the wallet, I have to face inconvenience,” said Priyanka Sharma, a city-based architect.