On November 8, 2016 when the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation and announced demonetization, common public welcomed the move as they were sure that this step taken by the government would make a big dent at the problem of black money in the country.
However, at one fell swoop, demonetization has also resulted in inconvenience for common public as now they have to stand for long hours in the queues to exchange or withdraw their money and that too has a prescribed limit which further adds to the trouble.
The worst consequence of demonetization has been the deaths of people; several people lost their lives while standing in long queues waiting for their turn to exchange notes while some died because hospitals, ambulances, chemists and transporters refused to take old notes in return of their services.
A new born died when a Mumbai hospital refused treatment as the parents weren’t able to pay in new currency notes while an infant died in Odisha as the family could not take him to hospital after auto driver refused to take fare charges in old notes.
In another incident, a child lost his life because a hospital denied accepting old notes; this hospital is owned by union culture and tourism minister Mahesh Sharma.
Some are dying due to anxiety as they have huge amount of cash which is of no use after demonetization. A young man from Kanpur died of heart attack as just one day before demonetization, he received cash payment for selling his land for approx Rs. 70 lakhs. In Telangana, a lady of 55 years committed suicide as her life savings of Rs. 50 lakhs were useless now while a businessman from Faizabad experienced chest pain and then heart attack just after few minutes of listening to the demonetization announcement made by the PM.
Apart from this, the most affected are those who have marriages in their house and they are out of cash owing to demonetization. Not only common public but also bank employees are suffering to a large extent, taking into consideration the fact that they have been working for long hours continuously in order to meet the needs. Even some of them have lost their lives if we go by this tweet made by Indian Express:
The government has been criticized for non-availability of new currency notes and for the same, a number of people are calling it an unprepared move on the part of Modi government.
We really hope that the situation gets better as soon as possible!
Do let us know if anyone near you suffered because of demonetization in the comments section below.