Demonitization: Boon or Bane to The Indian Citizen
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
In this present competitive world, we all do need money to survive with. Suffice to say that it has become so important that people even turn to illegal methods of making easy money.
This is where black markets come in. Illegal production and printing of the official currency notes has caused many problems over the past few years. Terrorist organizations tend to have an upper hand in black money transactions and drug dealers reap in plenty with the help of black marketing.
Recently, under the leadership of Prime Minister, Sri. Narendra Modi, in attempts to curb and flush out all black money in circulation, demonetization has taken place.
Okay. First, let us try and understand what the term “demonetization” actually means:
It refers to the practice of replacing the currency notes in circulation with fresh new ones.
The world was taken aback completely by surprise and shock, not sure which one of those emotions were more dominant, by the Prime Minister’s sudden shattering announcement about the demonetization of 500 rupees and 1000 rupees notes in circulation worth up to 14 trillion rupees.
Suddenly all our hard earned 500 and 1000 rupees notes had become no more important or valuable than a crumpled newspaper or tissue paper. And all this happened overnight.
The demonetization campaign launched by Modi was based on a strategy called “Surgical strike over black money” referring to a campaign pledge to fight against black money in the country: crime and corruption.
But it is important to realize that this step was taken with an initiative to establish and achieve long term effects and goals and thus the effectiveness of the movement cannot be determined overnight or on a short term basis or short time period. Like every coin has 2 sides, this shocking move also has 2 sides to it. The good and the bad.
Personally, the reasons why I favour this movement are (merits):
1.It has the intention to completely flush out black money from all levels on a global scale. People with black money will also be forced to declare their unaccounted income playing a major role in cracking down the black money across the country.
2.The rural and the urban poor people will be forced to use their bank accounts which were opened under the “Jan Dhan Yojna”.
3.Prime Minister Modi’s demonetization decision is a step forward to his prior dream of making India ‘Digital’ and thus moving onto a cashless society.
4.Corruption will be curbed to a very large extent.
5.The saving of the country are expected to improve by means of it.
Everything has its own demerits too:
1.It has caused a lot of the country’s poor and common people immense hardships.
2.Many of them don’t have bank accounts or have access to any nearby banks; but this can be solved by initiating panchayat banks or using the already existent services like Grameen Banks or banks opened under the ‘Jan Dhan Yojna’.
3.It has led to a number of deaths after being refused treatment by hospitals due to their inability to pay up the fee.
4.In the end, the govt. is working toward a cashless society. Cashless economy needs internet connection and smartphones. In a country plagued with poverty, one cannot realistically expect everyone to pay online especially daily wage labourers. Unless government ensures everyone has free internet, free smartphones and free training, cashless economy is a big slap in the face of equality in our democracy. Moreover, cashless economy has never proved to eradicate or tackle corruption in developed nations.
5.The economy of India is not so well off and 1) Printing of enough notes, 2) Re-calibration of ATMs do require quite a large sum of money to make these drastic changes smoothly.
Let’s just say that it’s just too soon to speak of the effectiveness of the law as it is still in its infant stages. Let us give it a chance and see what good comes out of it. Personally, I think in the long run, we will finally see what this sudden change has to offer towards the betterment of our country’s economy and the corruption curbing process as a whole.
Though this move has enraged many on one hand and enlightened many on the other hand, it is up to each individual to see what good can come out any policy or law that the govt. comes up with and stand and show support for what they believe is best for them. So, as of now, I consider the demonetization process established by the PM as a boon to the society.
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