This story is from November 23, 2016

Earnings dwindle, add to burden of porters

Earnings dwindle, add to burden of porters
<p>Representative image<br></p>
NEW DELHI: It’s not as if Sikandar Khan does not have money. After seven years as a porter at Nizamuddin railway station, he has managed to save enough to pay for the education of his brother, who is a BTech student. The problem is Khan has not been able to access the money in his bank even after standing for long hours in the queues at banks near his Sarai Kale Khan residence.

“The demonetisation move was supposed to benefit the poor, so why are we facing this problem,” he wondered.
Like him, many porters in the city’s three railway stations blame the demonetisation for severely impacting their livelihood. There is a marked difference in their income, they said, before and after the PM announced the end of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8. To explain what this meant, Shahzad Khan said, “Yesterday, a family came with more than 10 items of luggage, but wouldn’t take our assistance because they said they did not have small bills to pay us.” Shahzad claimed situations like this have been the norm for two weeks now.
Many porters are accepting lower payments “out of goodwill and compulsion”. Some said they were carrying luggage for free for elderly travellers. “We don’t want them to miss their train. We have helped such people on numerous occasions,” said Sumer Meena, a coolie at the Old Delhi station for 22 years now.
Meena, father of five, is wracked with guilt at not being able to send money home, having himself needed to borrow from friends for his meals. “When I don’t even have enough to survive, what will I send my family?” he asked.
While alternative payment modes such as Paytm have come to the aid to many small timers, like grocers, the porters haven’t taken to them yet. They said they didn’t have the smart phones that could use the app. “Hum log jaahil log hain, aur na humare waisa phone hai uske liye,” said Jagmohan Kumar, 34, at New Delhi station.

Sikandar Khan did download the Paytm app on the urging of his brother, but hasn’t used it. “My brother told me that I should use it and receive my porterage through it,” he said, “but I don’t know how to use the app and have found no one who could help me understand how it works.”
Under the circumstances, some coolies have been forced to leave the city and go back to their villages. Samay Yadav claimed that 20-25 porters had left for their homes because they could not make do with their dwindling earnings. “We help each other out by lending money to colleagues in need, but obviously that is not enough,” Yadav said.
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