Notebandi impact: Six years on, folks nonetheless smarting from demonetisation blow

By PTI

NEW DELHI: The father with cash within the financial institution however none to pay distributors for his daughter’s marriage ceremony, the retailer scrounging for funds to maintain enterprise going, the home assist who did not get a wage for 2 months.

On Monday, these and lots of different comparable tales of hardship grew to become alive once more, when the Supreme Court upheld the federal government’s November 8, 2016 choice to demonetise Rs 1000 and Rs 500 denomination notes.

The choice, touted by the federal government to be a ‘surgical assault’ on black cash, missed its mark by a terrific margin and have become the bane of the daily-wage labourers and poor Indians, a piece which depends nearly completely on money.

To 38-year-old home assist Parvesh, even the mere point out of the phrase ‘notebandi’ sends a shiver down her backbone. The single mom of a 20-year-old son mentioned she was pressured to work with no wage for nearly two months and went empty abdomen for days at a stretch.

“It was the worst time of my life. Worse than even Covid-19, because during the Covid there was at least some help from the government and society at large. But during demonetisation, we are left alone to suffer,” mentioned Parvesh.

“I mean how can I expect my employer to help me when he himself was struggling with money?” she mentioned, having little to no thought about Monday’s Supreme Court verdict.

The SC in its verdict mentioned the decision-making course of behind the 2016 demonetisation was “not flawed.” In a five-judge bench, 4 judges voted in favour of upholding the note-ban decision-making whereas one choose dissented.

The ache was not restricted to the poor, and the center class too struggled to know the withdrawal guidelines that cascaded with on a regular basis regularity within the wake of demonetisation. Nor was it any extra inured to the agony of standing within the endless queues earlier than the ATMs, which too usually ran out of money, and too early.

Many small-scale companies are nonetheless reeling from demonetisation.

“Our business relies on cash and this makes it impossible for us to function properly and run our business. A limited time was given by the government to exchange the cash left with us, we were in continuous confusion about whether we should do business or stand in long queues for hours to get our cash exchanged,” Manish Shah, a Surat-based retailer, recounted.

“The whole business cycle was disrupted in the entire country,” he added.

For Jammu-based Rajendra Gupta, the money crunch due had turned the once-in-a-lifetime event of his solely daughter’s marriage ceremony right into a nightmare.

He recalled how he was made to beg for his personal hard-earned cash to pay the distributors in order that preparations may go on with no hitch. “I didn’t have enough money to pay the vendors. There was a limitation on how much money you could withdraw from banks. And then the government’s continuous flip-flop on rules and regulations and whatnot,” he mentioned.

ALSO READ | What was demonetisation really going after, driving roughshod over the general public?

An unprecedented rush at her office with a whole bunch scrambling to get inside was the very last thing, Taniya Sharma, then a trainee at a number one financial institution in New Delhi, thought she would witness within the preliminary days of her profession. “There were scuffles, sights of people crying, some even collapsing — I saw it all. Those scenes continue to haunt me till today,” Sharma recalled.

“The verdict does little to victims of those times.”

According to stories, a number of folks died in several elements of the nation whereas standing in queues for cash withdrawal and trade of the scrapped notes.

In March 2017, months earlier than the established order would return, the Union authorities mentioned it had “no official report” on how many individuals died in queues.

“No such official report has been received,” Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal had then mentioned in a written reply within the Lok Sabha.

NEW DELHI: The father with cash within the financial institution however none to pay distributors for his daughter’s marriage ceremony, the retailer scrounging for funds to maintain enterprise going, the home assist who did not get a wage for 2 months.

On Monday, these and lots of different comparable tales of hardship grew to become alive once more, when the Supreme Court upheld the federal government’s November 8, 2016 choice to demonetise Rs 1000 and Rs 500 denomination notes.

The choice, touted by the federal government to be a ‘surgical assault’ on black cash, missed its mark by a terrific margin and have become the bane of the daily-wage labourers and poor Indians, a piece which depends nearly completely on money.

To 38-year-old home assist Parvesh, even the mere point out of the phrase ‘notebandi’ sends a shiver down her backbone. The single mom of a 20-year-old son mentioned she was pressured to work with no wage for nearly two months and went empty abdomen for days at a stretch.

“It was the worst time of my life. Worse than even Covid-19, because during the Covid there was at least some help from the government and society at large. But during demonetisation, we are left alone to suffer,” mentioned Parvesh.

“I mean how can I expect my employer to help me when he himself was struggling with money?” she mentioned, having little to no thought about Monday’s Supreme Court verdict.

The SC in its verdict mentioned the decision-making course of behind the 2016 demonetisation was “not flawed.” In a five-judge bench, 4 judges voted in favour of upholding the note-ban decision-making whereas one choose dissented.

The ache was not restricted to the poor, and the center class too struggled to know the withdrawal guidelines that cascaded with on a regular basis regularity within the wake of demonetisation. Nor was it any extra inured to the agony of standing within the endless queues earlier than the ATMs, which too usually ran out of money, and too early.

Many small-scale companies are nonetheless reeling from demonetisation.

“Our business relies on cash and this makes it impossible for us to function properly and run our business. A limited time was given by the government to exchange the cash left with us, we were in continuous confusion about whether we should do business or stand in long queues for hours to get our cash exchanged,” Manish Shah, a Surat-based retailer, recounted.

“The whole business cycle was disrupted in the entire country,” he added.

For Jammu-based Rajendra Gupta, the money crunch due had turned the once-in-a-lifetime event of his solely daughter’s marriage ceremony right into a nightmare.

He recalled how he was made to beg for his personal hard-earned cash to pay the distributors in order that preparations may go on with no hitch. “I didn’t have enough money to pay the vendors. There was a limitation on how much money you could withdraw from banks. And then the government’s continuous flip-flop on rules and regulations and whatnot,” he mentioned.

ALSO READ | What was demonetisation really going after, driving roughshod over the general public?

An unprecedented rush at her office with a whole bunch scrambling to get inside was the very last thing, Taniya Sharma, then a trainee at a number one financial institution in New Delhi, thought she would witness within the preliminary days of her profession. “There were scuffles, sights of people crying, some even collapsing — I saw it all. Those scenes continue to haunt me till today,” Sharma recalled.

“The verdict does little to victims of those times.”

According to stories, a number of folks died in several elements of the nation whereas standing in queues for cash withdrawal and trade of the scrapped notes.

In March 2017, months earlier than the established order would return, the Union authorities mentioned it had “no official report” on how many individuals died in queues.

“No such official report has been received,” Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal had then mentioned in a written reply within the Lok Sabha.