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Demonetization - What should we do now?

As we know that our government has taken a decision of demonetization of Rs 500 and 1000 notes from market and people are suffering due to cash crunch. I am not an expert economist to comment on long term impact of this decision, but I can see the situation on the ground, with short term impact. This article is not about merit of this decision, but it is about managing the situation in hand. We are in a mess with this implementation, and things are getting out of control. I have tried my best to come up with what the government and public should do to cope up with situation. I am not an expert on managing such large-scale crisis, so this is not a complete formula, but my two cents only. 

What government should do:

  • Government should create a task force, with presence across country. BJP has its party unit across the nation, and should be used to create awareness in people. Each of the BJP local unit should work with local law enforcement department to ensure that people are not impacted for essential services. We have cases where hospitals and medicine stores are not accepting old notes. Having local party presence and law enforcement agency’s availability, people will know where to go for help. 
  • All regional and national leaders of BJP, including PM should continue to visit places in country assuring people about the details of this action and keep them updated about the situation. Right now, there is not much spoken from the leadership and it has created an atmosphere of panic in common people. This needs to change, and needs to change immediately, to avoid any other rumour like salt to get momentum. There is a need to contain the panic in people, by regular assurance from government and situation update from senior to local leadership.
  • Government should extend the acceptance of old notes at more essential and semi essential services, based on feedback from it’s on the ground team. 
  • New Rs. 500 notes are a must to manage the cash crunch in market, and it should be given top most priority for delivery to banks. 
  • The new currency is already printed and available as per RBI statement, but delivery is an issue. Banks are not able to cope with high volume of cash withdrawals from their ATM, as their delivery mechanism is not prepared to handle such volumes. This involves high value cash movement, so they can’t hire people overnight as well. This is high time government should involve Army for delivery of cash to ATMs. They can be trusted and can handle it in much better way. This will ensure more money at ATM and people will be able to withdraw cash for their day to day needs. 
  • Please learn something from your own initiative, and recent Jio example. Switch to paperless digital KYC for currency exchange using Adhaar Card. This is easy, quicker and people don’t have to struggle through paperwork and forms. Record their PAN Card no in system, and it will be another data captured for future use. This will also save millions spend on paper based form and photo copy. 


What the people should do:

  • Don’t panic. Understand the situation better, talk to someone in Bank, read newspaper, assure yourself that it is not a real financial crisis. This is a temporary situation. Prepare yourself mentally for the inconvenience in next coming days. But panic is not required, as things are going to get better soon. There is still hope, and the situation is not completely hopeless. Once you understand this, you will be able to manage the situation in much better way. 
  • Take a stock of Rs 100 or below currency in your possession, and plan to keep major portion of it for emergency only. If you have access to plastic money – debit or credit card, use that to the maximum for your purchase. If you are using a smart phone, try to install a wallet like PayTM, which also can be used for making payments. There are online sites available for buying groceries as well, use that if you can. 
  • Don’t go and stand in queue for depositing money as of yet, you have enough time for that. Let the initial rush ends and then you can do that easily. 
  • Instead of ATM, try visiting your bank with cheque or use deposit slip. You can withdraw Rs 10000 once and maximum Rs 20000 per week using cheque or deposit slip. The queue for withdrawal using deposit slip/cheque is smaller in Banks than ATM queue. 
  • You can go into any of the supermarket, and ask the people paying by cash to give you the cash, and you can pay by card on their behalf. 
  • Talk to your local Kirana store, where you regularly buy stuff. Most likely, they should be able to give you stuff on credit. Similarly, you can offer to pay using cheque to other stores like medicine etc. Even the regular vegetable and fruit vendor should be able to give you credit, if you are regularly buying from them. 
  • If you have just received Rs 2000 note, and are not able to get change for the same, try to prioritise what you need most. If it is grocery, give it to the Kirana store and ask them to keep it as advance payment. Similarly, for people with regular medical need, they can do an advance payment to their medicine shop and so on. 
  • Explain the situation to uneducated people around you and help them as much as you can. Once you have understood the situation, please explain the same to your maid, cook, driver, security guard and others. They may not have access to accurate information, and believe on hearsay. Please ask them about their situation, explain them about this temporary crisis, ask them not to panic, and help them for whatever they need. If they need to fill the form for currency exchange, help them in filling it, if they need some small amount as advance for their day to day expenses, please help them if you can. Otherwise, you can offer them some grocery from your own stock or order online for them. 
  • Please be sensitive to others while in queue, and with Bankers. People are suffering and are on their edge with this situation. If someone is abusing the government or this action, please do not try to defend this action by counter argument. Let them vent their anger, otherwise it could trigger unwanted spat at places. Similarly, be sensitive to bank employees who are working hard to distribute cash, even during weekend. If the cash gets over, it is not their fault. They are also suffering like people standing for hours in queue. They have also sacrificed their weekend for this cash crunch.  So, don’t shout on them, instead, be thankful to them for handling this situation. 
  • If you are a trader, be sensitive to the situation and provide as much credit to your regular customers as you can. Please accept payment through cheque or electronic transfer to your account. If you have not enrolled for wallet solutions like Paytm, please get in touch with them and you can accept payments using your mobile. Talk to your suppliers as well, for extending the credit for the supplies you get, and manage the situation till things are stabilised. 

We can blame or praise our government, but we cannot reverse what is already happened. So, let’s try to find a way to quickly get the situation under control. Feel free to add more in the above list. Let’s hope we get good result out of this action, and the results are worth the pain people are taking now. Right now, let’s be together and help each other to continue. 
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