“May Need a New PM”: Note Ban’s Rural Supporters Are Losing Faith

Villagers in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh are quickly running out of patience for demonetisation.

As PM Modi’s self-imposed 50-day demonetisation deadline looms, rural India is quickly growing impatient. (Photo: Esha Paul/The Quint)

“I’m calling because I can’t take it anymore,” Dhruv Narayan Yadav, a young business correspondent in Dumri Khas village, Uttar Pradesh, said in a 7 am phone call this week, “I have no money to distribute, and in a few hours I will have to go to my office and face an angry crowd.”

Narayan is one of approximately 1.2 lakh young men and women deputed to bring banking services to the 81 percent of India’s population that still does not have a neighbourhood bank. Every few days, a local branch is supposed to give him money that he then distributes to villagers who have an account with him.

The Quint first met Yadav days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s November 8 2016 announcement that his government was scrapping Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes with immediate effect.

Villagers expressed widespread support for the move, reasoning that the presumed benefits of the policy would eventually outweigh the costs. Now as Prime Minister’s self-imposed 50-day deadline looms and the cash crunch continues, rural India’s patience is running out.

After Yadav’s morning phone call, The Quint called him back when he reached his office and spoke with the people lined up outside. Their stories - of a farmer struggling to water his fields, a mobile phone salesman wary of mobile banking, of a daily wage labourer struggling to feed his family, a bank employee who fears for his life - explain why demonetisation’s most vociferous supporters are now losing faith in the policy.

Production: Esha Paul

Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam