Unorganized sector plans to march in protest next week

PUNE: Sukanya Jadhav (45), a house-help at a plush society in the city holds tight to a Rs 500 note she received from her employer. With an ailing mother at home and two schoolchildren, the government’s announcement to demonetize currency notes of higher denomination has left her with no other cash at home.
Jadhav is facing difficulties in getting change for the note; she is not the only one.Other members of the ‘molkarin sanghatana’ have similar problems.
Most helpers, who get paid after November 10, have been given the old, invalid notes by their employers as they didn’t have the new currency. This has resulted in these women running from pillar to post to exchange money. Jadhav, like many others of the group, has been getting even her daily grocery and other essentials on credit.
Pune District Molkarin Sanghatana’s general secretary Medha Thatte said that though the government’s objective is good, the way it has been implemented has left poor and middle class people running from banks to post offices. “The rich continue to be unaffected and we need to fight this. We are planning to conduct a ‘morcha’ next week to express our problems,” Thatte said.
Nitin Pawar of Hamal Panchayat said that while the government is weeding out old notes, black marketing of small change is now on.
“People are making business by exchanging small amounts for big amounts. The purpose of such a decision is rendered useless. Most of our people have no work and are penniless,” Pawar, who threatened to march to the district collectorate next week, said.
Kiran Moghe of Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana said that women from the unorganized sector, migrants and small traders are the most affected as most of them have no bank accounts. Though all the money they have is in old notes, they can’t waste their day standing in queues at banks or post offices either.
“Though the government has said the old notes can be used till November 24, they cannot use it or run their household. This is not how a government should deal with weeding out black money as those having unaccounted cash have it stashed away in foreign shores or as property or gold, and not just in hard cash,” Moghe said.
Moghe also termed the demonetization a hasty an ill-planned move by the government.
Moghe further added that lakhs of women who have nothing at all to do with black money but have scrimped together meagre savings are affected.
The All India Democratic Women’s Association issued a statement that those earning a pittance as daily wages, elderly pensioners including widows have been running around over the past few days, unable to use their own hard-earned money to buy daily provisions, medicines or travel. “Their daily lives have been completely paralyzed. Many deaths have occurred in the process. All kinds of illicit dealings have been unleashed and they exploit the helplessness of the people and the chaotic conditions in the market,” it said.