For persons with disabilities in the city, with banks and ATMs already hard to access, the demonetisation of the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes has led to a difficult situation.
Disability rights activist P. Simmachandran said his bank was on the first floor, accessed by a spiral staircase. “The lift was closed. There is no separate queue for those with disabilities. I went on three separate days and stood in the queue for hours, but my work has still not been completed. I cannot even access ATMs as most of them have stairs,” he said.
Unable to exchange
Amba Salelkar of Equals, Centre for Promotion of Social Justice, said that with many disabled persons already excluded from the banking system, some tended to keep cash at home, but were now finding it difficult to go and exchange it.
“Persons with disabilities who fall under the National Trust Act still have a hard time opening bank accounts independently and have to go through a guardian,” she said.
Visually impaired resident of Kotturpuram Mohamed Zafrullah said that he did not have an ATM card as he was denied one for security reasons. “We are being given Rs. 2,000 rupee notes and it is extremely difficult for us to get change as we cannot move around very easily.”
The disabled found it tough to access banks which were on higher floors and also had to wait in queues
