Financial genocide: How the demonetisation policy killed 105 people
How the long queues, government negligence and empty ATMs fuelled a nation-wide chaos, leading to fatalities for those in need.
One day after the demonetisation policy, on 9 November, ATM machines all over the country were not working. Long queues were seen in all banks throughout the country where people would wait for hours and hours, in some cases even days. The long lines are only present to hear the bank teller say that the bank is out of cash. For those people who’s lives depend on hard cash — daily wage workers, small and medium enterprises and more than 90% of the Indian population — this is a disaster that is unthinkable.
The policy
The demonetisation policy came in a sudden address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who declared that Rs 500 and Rs 1000 would no longer be legal tender. He said that he wanted to fight against corruption and black money as well as counterfeit currency and illegal terror funding.
The demonetised notes constitute for about 86% of all cash in circulation in the country. Moreover, about 97% if all transcations are carried out in cash. This shows us how cash-dependent India is. According to an article on Quartz India, only slightly more than half of the population has bank accounts of which only half of them have been used. Credit cards and debit cards when it comes to financial transactions — only a marginal percentage of the population utilises it.
The demonetised notes comprise 86% of the currency in circulation. According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), it had “no information” on the amount of black money recovered and that 99% of the currency has came back to the banking system. I wrote a seperate article on this.
Moreover, the PM kept changing the goal of demonetisation which lead the nation to go haywire. Initially, it was the fight against black money which transcended into digital/cashless economy. Read this.
According to experts, this move will not have a significant impact on uprooting black money. Rather, it may hurt the country. In addition, according to a HT analysis of data from tax raids from financial year 2012–13 onwards, shows that only 6% of unaccounted wealth is kept in the form of cash despite the fact that 90% of India’s transactions depend on cash.
Cash in India
According to the data, around 18 lakh crore has been in circulation with the general public. The growth of cash in India was quite high before the demonetisation policy. However, the sudden drop to about 7–8 lakh crore was found in mid November 2016 and early 2017. By March 2017, the growth of cash was resurgent for the first quarter of 2017. This clearly shows cash is king in India.
Demonetisation and death: A correlation
There have been 105 reports of deaths in connection to the demonetisation policy. These deaths are spread out throughout the country with Uttar Pradesh, topping the death toll with 28 deaths, according to data released by Derek O’Brien, prominent MP, on Twitter.
Here are some cases mentioned in the tweet:
- Ratna Pillai, 70-year-old, died waiting in a bank queue Vijaya Lakshmi, 70-year-old, died as she entered into a bank to exchange her old notes.
- Lakshminarayana, 75-year-old, died waiting in a bank queue Komali, 18 month-old child, died because her parents did not have money to buy medicine. Private hospital refused to take old notes S K Sheriff 46-year-old deputy manager of SBI bank collapsed while working and died in the hospital. He was working 14 hours every day. SK Moulali, 75-years-old, collapsed while standing in a queue and died on the next day. He had been standing
- Komali, 18 month-old child, died because her parents did not have money to buy medicine. Private hospital refused to take old notes
- S K Sheriff 46-year-old deputy manager of SBI bank collapsed while working and died in the hospital. He was working 14 hours every day.
- SK Moulali, 75-years-old, collapsed while standing in a queue and died on the next day. He had been standing in queues for 10 days to withdraw his pension.
- Ram Awadh Sah, 45-year-old, died of heart attack as he feared his daughter’s in-laws would not accept his old currency notes in dowry.
- A 45-year-old farmer committed suicide as he could not exchange old notes after trying three days. He had to send money to his stranded children in Tamil Nadu.
- Babulal Valmiki collapsed and died 100 meters away from the bank. He had gone to exchange 12000 rupees. Sanjay Prajapt died after rushing home to fetch his father’s Adhar card, so he could exchange old notes at the bank
- Suresh, 18-year-old B. Sc. second year student hanged himself as he could not withdraw money from the bank to pay his college examination fees.
The deaths can be separated into 4 types — those who died while waiting in bank queues or collapsed while in the queue and died soon after. The second type are those who were stressed from not being able to find valid currency for urgent needs such as medical needs and wedding preparations. The third type are those who committed suicide due to frustration and not being able to get cash or other financial constraints. Finally, there are bank employees who are reported to have died due to overwork and stress.
There were reported deaths of infants and children dying after they were denied treatment due to the cash crunch or because their parents could not buy the required medicines due to inadequate valid currencies. As of 21 November 2016, the Reserve Bank of India replaced a value equivalent to just 10% of the notes that have been demonetised. There were also reported cases of at least six suicides due to the inadequacy of valid currencies despite repeated visits to overcrowded and cash-scarce banks.
There were also cases of senior citizens dying due to spending long hours queueing in banks as well as bankers and bank employees dying of stress and work overload. While the deaths cannot be perfectly matched with the deaths, but some families directly blamed the policy for the deaths of thier family members.
According to The Wire, the family of a 70-year-old daily wager who died on November 17 has alleged that he had been standing in queue to exchange notes for three days with no success and died of a brain haemorrhage. The family has moved the Supreme Court seeking compensation.
Moreover, the news site reported that there were several cases which did not fall into the four categories. For instance, war veteran, retired Flying Officer Prahlad Singh fought two wars, defending his country but died while waiting in a bank queue in Rajasthan. In another instance, senior cashier Purshottam Vyas died while counting cash in his bank in Bhopal. All the deaths not falling into the 4 categories are mentioned here.
Only a few of the deaths are mentioned, the news site reported. Moreover, statistically, various media sources quoted 80 to 100 deaths, while Congress leaders mentioned 84 deaths in Parliament.
So far, the government of Uttar Pradesh has promised compensation of Rs 2 lakh to affected families while the Bengal government promised a job to a family member of the deceased.
Patients at low-cost hospital decreased, medicines inaccessible
According to The Wire, hospitals that provide low-cost treatment in remote areas decreased significantly after the demonetisation policy. For instance, Dr Saibal Jana coordinator of Shaheed Hospital in Dalli Rajhara, Chattisgarh said that the number of patients coming to the Out-Patient Department (OPD) decreased by 30%.
A hospital under Jan Swasthya Sahyog in a village called Ganyari, Bilaspur district in Chattisgarh typically has a large number of patients waiting for thier turn, which decreased after the cash crunch. According to Dr Yogesh Jain, the coordinator of the initiative, also mentioned that the decrease amounted to about 30%.
In addition, the article mentioned that patients who were seriously ill who would have come if not for the cash crunch.
Essential medicines were difficult to aquire post-demonetisation. Rehana Adib of Uttar Pradesh said she had difficulties buying medicines and had to buy it on credit. This reflects the intense hardship of those who don’t have access to digital or credit payment options. In addition, many people have complained that medicines have been inaccessible or difficult to buy due to the cash crunch.
The Wire wrote the following to address the healthcare crisis due to demonetisation:
The overall result is that over a period of several weeks, there has been a decline in nutrition and an increase in mental stress as well as physical weakness and ailments. This can be a problem in itself and can aggravate existing medical problems. At the same time, the ability to obtain timely medical care has declined significantly. It is due to the combination of these factors that a large number of demonetisation deaths are likely to have taken place in various parts of the country, over and above the reported death rate.
No official report on deaths, says government
The government said that it had not received any “official report” on deaths related to the demonetisation policy.
The Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply, saying that “no such official report has been received”, The Indian Express reported.
The Finance Minister was responding to a question on the total number of people who died during the period of the cash crunch and the compensation that would be provided to the families of the deceased.
RTI: Transfers and denials
So far, RTI applications filed with all the departments and ministries have not been replied regarding the deaths due to demonetisation. Rather, it reached a “dead end”, as reported by CNN-News18.
According to the news site, there has been no response from any ministry or department and that neither of them launched any kind of enquiry regarding the deaths — of more than 80 people — who died due to demonetisation, in order to assess the credibility of the deaths.
These applications had sought to know whether any inquiry or investigation was carried out to ascertain number of people, who died while exchanging notes in banks or standing in queues in bank ATMs between November 8 and December 30, or till date. Other questions pertained to members of such investigation teams, number of people whose deaths could be directly attributed to hardships post demonetisation and compensation to be paid to such victims.
The RTI applications were filed in order to aquire information on possible investigations on the deaths, and to verify the number of deaths due to the policy till date or between November 8 and December 30.
The first RTI against the policy was filed with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)on December 26. The MHA is in charge for law and order situations and also includes statistics regarding unnatural deaths.
However, the MHA transferred the RTI request to the Department of Revenue without any question about the investigation on December 30, 2016.
About a week later, on January 5, the Department of Revenue transferred the application to the Department of Economic Affairs, where another separate RTI application was filed and still spending. The Department of Economic Affairs was instrumental in the execution of the currency ban of Rs 500 and Rs 1000.
The RTI application was stagnated for more than a month, reported News18. The Department of Economic Affairs further transferred the application to the Ministry of Home Affairs on February 17.
The reply stated that the following:
“Further details will be available on viewing the status of the above-mentioned new request registration number.”
The MHA transferred the RTI application to the Department of Financial Services, with a new registration number, according to the reply given by the MHA.
Not a single proper reply has been given by any department expect the fact that the RTI application has been constantly transferred. On February 20, the Department of Financial Services transferred the application to the Department of Economic Affairs once again, sending on copy to the RBI
On February 20, three days later, the Department of Financial Services sent the application to the Department of Economic Affairs one more time. It also sent another copy to the RBI. On April 24, the incident occurred again, where the Department of Economic, once again transferred the application to the MHA, which already cleared the air saying that it had no information.
The RBI, on March 8, informed that it has “no information to furnish in this regard” whereas the Department of Economic Affairs sat on the RTI plea for the next two months.
All in all, there has been no reply from any department so far.
Political backlash
“Demonetisation is nothing but a disaster in which 104 innocent people were killed while the corrupt made windfall gains,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter. He added that the prime minister should apologise to the nation.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that the economists who recommended demonetisation deserved a Nobel Prize. “Almost 99% notes legally exchanged! Was demonetisation a scheme designed to convert black money into white?,” he said on Twitter.
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said that Narendra Modi, who announced the demonetisation scheme, must now take responsibility for its failure. “Modi claimed ownership of demonetisation. He has to take responsibility for the disastrous failure that it has been,” Yechury said.
West Bengal CM Mamta Bannerjee, a vocal critic of the policy said:
“Is not the RBI’s revelation this evening on demonetisation pointing to a big scam? I feel it was totally a flop show.”
She also wrote on a Facebook post, which said:
“Hundreds of people lost their lives. Crores of common people – farmers, workers, those engaged in informal sector, small enterprises and other most vulnerable sections of society suffered massive pain.”
BJP-led tweets say ‘ #DemonetisationSuccess’
Data journalism site, Boomlive found out that a series of tweets that were identical, all hailing the success of the demonetisation policy.
Here’s the series of tweets:
So, now what?
We, as a people should recognise that demonetisation is one of the worst economic blunders that our nation has witnessed. The policy’s aim was unclear as the PM confused the citizens of India every now and then. The demonetisation policy not only caused an economic havoc, but also a socio-political havoc, which still haunts the people of India today. Hundreds of deaths have been linked with the policy, eventhough they are an indirect cause.
What we have to realise is that, these deaths aren’t just mere statistics, they are an inseparable loss to millions of families and their family members. The demonetisation ghost will forever haunt India and will certainly have its consequences.
