A Thursday mid-day at Kachha Bagh, a short twisty lane off the Chandni Chowk Metro station, across the huge public park. A walk in the lane throws at you sights that you have seen in other parts of Delhi, also those that you haven’t not. All within the span of 10-12 shops.
Against glass cases written ‘Phate Note Wale’, there are eager shopkeepers waiting for customers coming to exchange old, soiled and mutilated notes for new ones against a small profit. Say, pay two rupees extra for a new ten rupee note, Rs five more for a new hundred rupee note. Such sellers of money are a common sight on Delhi streets.
And then, a not-so-common one presents itself. Sitting on white bedrolls are some men, giving you a rather disinterested look, their back resting on big iron and steel lockers. The board above their shops announces their identity as ‘agents of old Indian currency and foreign exchange’. Sellers of big money surely.
Well, more on them later but for now, let’s move over to a Friday afternoon. To the towering back gate of the Reserve Bank of India on Parliament Street. Where a queue of about 50-55 people, mostly men, is building up. It is past 2 p.m., the gate would open anytime, and they have just been told that not all would be allowed in today. A new rule apparently. An understandable cloud of commotion springs up, leading an armed guard of the RBI to push them back into the queue.
For these men — mostly young and middle-aged coming from across Delhi, standing in this queue every Friday afternoon is but a routine job, an “agent’s job”. And this is what connects them to the sight we had seen a day earlier in Kachha Bagh. Each man is holding a paper packet containing soiled notes with their postal addresses written on top. The notes have been collected either from users directly or from ‘phate note wale’ shops across the city including the ones that are in Old Delhi. And every Friday, they become a part of a supply chain of soiled and mutilated notes reaching the RBI headquarters, to be checked whether they are to be discarded or to be sent back in circulation.
Thirty five-year-old Kuldeep Kumar of Old Rajinder Nagar is one such regular. “The packet I am holding can’t have more than Rs.350. Six months after it is submitted to the RBI, the new notes will be home delivered,” he states.
Isn’t six months too long, considering their profession is to make small profits on new and clean notes? Turns out it is a cycle that they have well fitted themselves into.
“The whole week, my brother and I collect soiled notes at our roadside shop in Chandni Chowk and every Friday, I or him are in this queue to deposit them at an RBI counter. So even if it is a six-month cycle, we end up receiving new notes against the old ones couple of times a month,” explains Sanjay Kumar, yet another phate purane note changer.
On other days of the week, three times a month, anytime between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., these ‘agents’ yet again queue up at the gate to buy new notes, mostly of Rs.10, 20 and 100.
So how much do they earn from such an odd job? Balbir Kumar of Raja Garden — in the profession for 20 years — says, “Not much, unless it is a wedding season when people want new notes. During the month of shradh, the earnings dip because nobody does anything auspicious then.”
Balbir can get issued only one bundle of notes at a time from the RBI Issue counter. He usually takes a bundle of Rs.1000 of Rs. 10 denomination which he exchanges for soiled notes against Rs.1040 at a shop in Kachha Bagh. “During the wedding season, I can make Rs.1100 to 1200 from the same bundle,” he says. The new money also ends up being garlands against which the RBI has been appealing to the public as it removes money from circulation.
Balbir weaves in the importance of his ilk here, “Though national banks should accept soiled notes from people, they usually don’t. Shopkeepers, autowallahs, etc. often don’t accept soiled notes from customers. So we become a medium for people.” But he now might opt out of the profession. “Instead of Rs.350, we are now told you can deposit soiled notes not more than Rs.100. Also, for some time, I have been issued only Rs.500 worth of ten rupee notes instead of Rs.1000. The reason given is, there is no supply. What profit can you make from such a small sum?” he asks.
Meanwhile, at the Kachha Bagh shops, there is no hint of trouble. “We deal with big money, we don’t line up at the RBI gate. We get money electronically transferred,” says one of the shopkeepers with steel lockers. Would he explain how it works? Well, he suddenly loses interest in the conversation.
Small shops too are not concerned, yet. “Some agents will continue to do this business despite the RBI bringing in rules to discourage them,” says Kishanlal, owner of Mohalla Hazoorilal, a small money exchange shop in to its fourth generation now.
His son, however, has recently partitioned a part of the shop to sell artificial jewellery as their shop is where the jewellery lane in Chandni Chowk begins.
