Chennai still weighed down by note ban impact

Those who were at the receiving end of woes such as queuing up in front of petrol bunks and banks and ATMS have even more horror stories to tell. Speaking to this newspaper on the first anniversary of the note ban, Dr Aiswarya Rao, a public health and disability rights activist says, “Running a shelter for the homeless became tougher after demonetisation. I had to provide food for nearly 30 persons each day, and we need a lot of cash (change) to buy vegetables etc. For nearly 3-4 weeks we struggled to exchange our old notes for new Rs 2,000 notes. In the rush to deposit the defunct currency, I personally heard of a lot of persons with disability who found it difficult to access banks or to stand in queues at the Bank/ATM those initial weeks. I think the senior citizens and persons with disability had it the hardest and people who did not have access to banking at all. A year later, we wonder what’s the point.” 

She adds, “It was such a colossal loss of time, effort, resources, and all the attention taken away from real issues. Can we ever make up for it? I am a firm believer in the system. But this exercise took that away. The system just doesn’t care for the poor and the weak. Any policy that  ignores the hardship of the poor is not a good one.” 

Shreepal Panwar, an entrepreneur based out of Chennai says, “Everybody’s really been upset following the demonetisation. Honestly, I lost a lot of money due to that one decision of the government. Following the note ban, there was a huge cash crunch. Running my business became so tough as people had stopped buying due to lack of hard cash. For the next two months, the country came to a standstill.” 

He goes on to add, “In Tamil Nadu, bad situation became worse due to Cyclone Vardah and the continuing political upheaval. Even a year later, we see the repercussions of demonetisation, felt by the common man. The informal economy has been hit considerably and many people, especially daily wage workers lost their  jobs as SMEs were hit. As far as I m concerned, the demonetisation was a complete failure.” 

Another textile entrepreneur on condition of anonymity said, “Consumption has come down severely. During Deepavali and Ayudha Pooja, which are the peak sales season, we suffered massive losses. People were desisting from buying and that hurt our business severely. We are compelled to shut close to three of our outlets because of the same.” 

Sanjay Pinto, lawyer & media personality remarks, “The Honey I Shrunk the Money mantra may have been well intentioned in the context of black money. But the way it was implemented backfired. The average, honest tax paying citizen was hit hard. The big fish, the real target group, we hear, managed to tide over the measure.”