Going cashless in Red Corridor: Chhattisgarh’s smart money trail

While many Indian urbanites saw the demonetization of November 2016 as a hassle, the lesser privileged rural populace took it as an opportunity to upgrade themselves.

Living examples are four youths from Palnar village of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh who transformed their remote naxal-hit hamlet, which has barely 33 per cent literacy, into Indias first 100 per cent cashless village" ! Sukalu Ram Mudami, the 31-year-old sarpanch of Palnar; Pawan Kumar, a young CSC (Common Service Centres) manager here; Dheeraj Gupta, a grocery shop owner, and Gopal Sinha, a cycle-bike repair shop owner in the village, graced the occasion of Mail Todays Smart Money Conclave on Friday.

They addressed an august gathering at the Taj Vivanta Hotel in Khan Market, New Delhi, on how they led the tough digital revolution in this desolate countryside.

Initially, we all thought how could this be? We had been seeing those currency notes from birth. How could we manage without them? recollected Mudami.

Plus, the nearest banks (Grameen and SBI) from Palnar are at least 40 km away in central Dantewada, to which only two bus trips are available from our village in a day, and we have no ATMs, he exclaimed.

Then the sarpanch and his subjects realised that this was indeed the perfect time to upgrade themselves technologically. And their District Collector Saurabh Kumar, and the CSC centre which helps in dispensing Aaadhar and PAN cards, proved extremely useful in this.

In a matter of days, we transformed our CSC centre into providing bank correspondence such as opening of new accounts, depositing money and withdrawing it, said manager Pawan Kumar.

No less than 15,000 new bank accounts were opened not just of 300 oddhouseholds in Palnar but of residents of at least 22 villages nearby.

Almost entire Dantewada came out of a banking black hole in less than a month, Kumar said.

Internet connection provided by Essar as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and a Wi-Fi hotspot in the Palnar main market created by BSNL, made magic.

Card swipe machines and smartphones were given to 22 shops that operate from this market. Now, all the requisite infrastructure to go digital was ready.

We went to each doorstep, brought people to CSC centres and taught them how to say, download Paytm and use it, how to use the RuPay card, how to do basic banking operations on the computers provided at the centre and even fill up college admission and job vacancy forms from here. Citizens of Palnar are hugely empowered now, Pawan Kumar recalled.

The same people, who were initially unnerved by technology, were now loving it, exclaimed sarpanch Sukalu Ram Mudami. And the benefits were being reaped by everyone including small local entrepreneurs like Dheeraj Gupta, a grocery shop owner, and Gopal Sinha, a cycle-bike repair shop owner.

Dheeraj said, Our sales went up suddenly. With transfer of money and withdrawal of cash, all possible through the CSC centre, and bank trips made redundant, people shopped more. Udhaari (borrowings) also stopped almost immediately as all purchases began to be made by Paytm.

Gopal said, Our eyes opened up to the world! We could Google search new cycle parts, equipment and machines; make their purchases online; even get them delivered here. We could check their market rate on the internet, and monthly payments also became daily payments as transactions became so easy.

We continue to be cashless and have felt no need to look back since, he concluded.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/going-cashless-in-red-corridor-chhattisgarh-s-smart-money-trail-1176786-2018-02-24