Ghazanfar Abbas, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, Feb 19: Even it has been more than three months now, the daily waging section is still not able to get rid of hardships they face daily due to demonetization. To tell the untold miserable stories due decision of demonetization by Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) led central government, daily wagers took out march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar here on Sunday.
“Poor people are mostly affected by this note ban. Modi ji just saw a dream to remove the poor. He told us a lie that Ache Din (good days) would come,” Jitendra Bahadur Singh, a street vendor said while protesting against note ban.
To know how demonetization has affected the livelihood of worker section in last three and half months, IndiaTomorrow.net talked to some daily wagers – men and women demonstrated against the government’s move.
“My husband is a construction worker. It has been around four months now, he is not getting work properly. We are not getting work,” a woman protester said.
Another protesting woman said, “Note ban has not affected the rich, it is the poor who got affected by this.”
PM Narendra Modi declared old notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 as illegal tender on 8th November last year with three objectives– check on black money, fake currency and terror financing and Reserve Bank of India issued new currency of Rs. 2000 in place of Rs. 500 and Rs.1000 old currency notes which were total 86% of the total cash.
The protest march was aimed to send a message to Modi Government that even after the announcement of union budget; the poor and daily wage workers have still not over come from the effect of demonetization and so it was a part of corporate driven agenda rather than the objectives told by the government behind demonitisation.
Among the protestors, many puppeteers came from Katputli colony, Sahdipur. They had to say that they have had been already facing a threat of being uprooted from their homes any day as their colony has been sold out to a private builder by Delhi Development Authority (DDA). In this situation demonetization has severely affected them as they are not getting work for many days.
Sarbati, a puppeteer and resident from Katputli colony said: We are already affected by poverty and now this note ban by Modi government has icreased more troubles for us.”
“We are living there for last 50 years. DDA sold that our land to Raheja Builders. Delhi police is also harassing us,” she alleged.
Puppeteers whoes earning is based on puppets’s show in marriages and other occasions such as fairs, now unable to get work after demonitisation.
“We go to the marriages program to earn money. Nobody gives us money. Note ban has severely affected us; earlier we used to earn money in marriages but we are unable to earn a single penny now,” a puppeteer told.
