For someone who has resisted even using a basic mobile phone, 89 year-old Krishna Raheja is part of a generation that is finding it difficult to adapt to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of switching to a primarily cashless economy.
Going to the bank is a bi-annual affair for Ms. Raheja when she withdraws enough money to last her for a couple of months. The cupboard in her room is the safest place to deposit and withdraw the cash that her children provide her.
Don’t need plastic money
Sitting outside her ground floor residence in Patel Nagar enjoying the winter sun, Ms. Raheja says: “Earlier, I used to go to the park near the market every evening to meet friends and often buy something in the market, but ever since my knees have become weak, my shopping has been restricted to buying items from hawkers who come to our house. These people take only cash so I have not learnt to use plastic money or made the effort to understand how net banking works. I do not need it.”
Ms. Raheja is part of a generation for whom the bank is the only point of deposit and withdrawal.
The debit card issued by banks remain in an envelope tucked away safely in a cupboard with the pin number written down on a piece of paper, lest they forget it.
On November 8, when demonetisation was announced, Ms. Raheja said that she asked her son and daughter-in-law, whom she lives with, to deposit all the cash she had into her bank account.
Family helps
“I have the comfort of living with family and therefore have the luxury of not having to wait in the lines that I have been seeing on television. I however, wonder how other people of my generation who live alone have been managing to fend for themselves,” says Ms. Raheja.
She adds that once people reach a certain age, going out to to the market is tough and they rely on home delivery for medicine and other necessities.
“My granddaughter keeps going to the market and whenever I want something, she buys it for me. But some of the people I know are alone at home during the day and do not have people willing to stand in the queue for them to withdraw money. Life is tough for them,” Ms. Raheja says.
“One cannot expect us to suddenly change our ways. Anyway, the vegetable vendor, food delivery boy and others that come to our home are only taking cash so even if I want to make an effort to learn, the people I buy things from are also just like me. Cash only!.”
