Delhi’s first ‘fully digital-payment enabled village’ still waiting to get connected

Surakhpur’s two kirana shops have been equipped with Point of Sale machines, but mobile Internet connection is so unreliable that villagers have given up on the facility

New Delhi, 02/07/2017: Soma Solanki tries using a POS machine with zero connectivety at Surakh Pur village is located in Najafgarh Tehsil of South West Delhi. Photo: V. V. Krishnan

A three-kilometre-long road that cuts through lush fields near Delhi-Haryana border ends at a rusty Delhi Transport Corporation bus stop at Surakhpur, which was in February declared Delhi’s first “fully digital-payment enabled village”.

Located in Najafgarh tehsil, the village has a population of roughly 1,500 people. It has two kirana shops, both of which have been equipped with Point of Sale (POS) machines to enable digital transactions.

Good on paper

Campaigns were undertaken to ensure that every household had a KYC-compliant bank account, giving villagers the option to make digital payments.

It all sounds good on paper but over the past six months, shop owners say, not more than 20 people have made use of the facility.

“The problem is not that my customers do not have debit cards. A member of every family has a debit card. The problem is that there is very bad mobile Internet connectivity here, making POS machines unreliable,” said Surat Singh, the owner of a

kirana store.

Mr. Singh keeps his POS machine inside the packaging that it came in, first dusting it with a cloth before proudly presenting it. He cannot remember the last time he used it and said that he is thinking of giving it up at the end of the trial period.

A similar story plays out at Soma Solanki’s store. Ms. Solanki said that there was a good response initially as it was a novel concept. But villagers gave up on the facility after transactions kept failing due to connectivity issues.

“Most of my business is on credit and I maintain records in a book. My customers come and clear it at the end of the month. I don’t ask them to swipe for a ₹10 packet of biscuits every day, but ₹1,000-₹1,500 at the end of the month,” said Ms. Solanki.

To confirm the claims of villagers, we try to make a purchase. After numerous attempts at swiping the card, the transaction does not go through. The village is indeed digital payment-enabled but in reality, to withdraw money, villagers have to walk to Najafgarh to find an ATM.

On the border

Vikas Solanki, a resident of the village, said the connectivity problem is because the village is located very close to the Haryana border and there is no dedicated cellphone tower.

“Sometimes our phones go on roaming and catch Haryana signals. Sometimes, they catch Delhi signals. Some people who got jobs outside the village even bought dongles to use with laptops but those do not work either,” said Mr. Solanki.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Najafgarh Anjali Sehrawat, who started the initiative, said many changes have been brought in the village through workshops, campaigns and door-to-door campaigning to educate people on digital payments.

“Yes, there is a network problem in the village. We have spoken to several cell phone operators, but nobody has shown interest in setting up a tower. It is a roadblock but I think the initiative has been successful in creating awareness and people will be able to make the change easily,” she added.

Karan Solanki, a Class XII student, said many people in the village have smartphones and even Paytm accounts, but they use it when they go out of the village. “People know about it, but the network here does not allow us to use such apps on our phone”.