http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-37921672
Indians are scrambling to adjust to life without 500 and 1,000 rupee
notes after they were removed from public circulation in a shock
announcement on Tuesday night. The move is part of a crackdown on
corruption and illegal cash holdings.
My child has cancer, we can't buy food'
Mahavir Singh, sitting outside Delhi's famed All India Institute of
Medical Sciences (AIIMS), is the picture of despair. The farm labourer
has travelled nearly 80km (49 miles) from his village with his mother
and his 10-year-old son Mohit Kumar, who suffers from blood cancer. The
trio had brought 5,000 rupees for the trip to cover food, travel and
lodging expenses, only to find that most of their money is now
effectively worthless.
"We are facing major problems.
Auto-rickshaw drivers and hotels are not accepting 500 rupee notes and
that is all I have. It's been such a struggle to feed my family, and my
son will have to sleep on the pavement tonight," he told the BBC.
His
mother, Pushpa Devi, says they have already spent all the 100 rupee
notes they have. "I have heard that there are some people who come here
every evening to distribute food as charity, so I am hoping we can have
that for dinner.
Sameer, who owns a roadside clothes shop along Mumbai's busy Linking road, says that he has had next to no customers all day.
"You
can see, there is no one here," he says. "Those who do come in try
purchasing a cheap item with their 500 and 1,000 rupee notes and then
asking us for change since the ATMs are shut. But we are not accepting
those notes.
"In the long run this is going to affect our business badly as we only deal in cash.
Kalamuddin, a rickshaw puller in old Delhi, is angry. "I am left with
all this," he says, animatedly waving 500 rupee notes around. "What
will I do? I don't have any identity card or even a bank account. It's
my hard-earned money. You tell me how I can prove that this is not black
money."
Mr Kalamuddin's problem is likely to be a common one in
India, which is overwhelmingly a cash economy and where many daily-wage
labourers do not possess formal identification or bank accounts.
Ranchor, who owns a convenience store in western Mumbai, says he is
accepting 500 and 1,000 rupee notes from customers desperate to rid
themselves of the now-banned currency.
"But we are not giving any
change back. They have to purchase goods that are worth that amount. We
will go to the bank and change those notes.
"This has benefited
us because people are coming here as they can't go to the smaller local
shops. This is a great move by the prime minister. It is time to crack
down on black money."
Neeraj Bharadwaj, a jeweller in old Delhi, agrees it is important to
bring "black money" back into the economy. But he says he is not sure
about the way it was done.
"What are we going to do for the next
few weeks? Our business is mainly during the wedding season, which
starts in a few days. But now how are people going to buy gold and
silver? They can only convert 4,000 rupees a day and that's not enough
when you have a wedding to fund," he says.
"I pay all my taxes but
I still mainly deal in cash. Now I am left with thousands of rupees
worth of valueless notes. What am I going to do with them? Even if I
change 4,000 rupees a day every day, it will take me months to convert
all my money. I am educated and know what to do, but imagine the plight
of a vegetable seller or milkman?"
Chiara Rossi, an Italian national who has been in India for six
weeks, said the fiscal move had left her at a loss as to what to do with
her foreign exchange.
"This is India and anything can happen but
this is not fair. The government should have thought about tourists. I
have 5,000 rupees and I am leaving India this evening. I don't know what
to do with my money. It's frustrating."
