Wholesale traders reject idea of cashless deals

New Delhi: Post Wednesday midnight, the Central government’s move towards going digital will complete its tumultuous one-month. However, it seems to be an unreal practice for several city market traders. Traders from the capital’s top notch wholesale markets like Sadar Bazaar, Chandni Chowk, Chawri Bazaar, Gandhinagar Market, Paharganj market, Ghazipur Mandi and Khari Baoli equivocally alleged that the wholesale markets are not meant for online transactions and they will continue to deal in cash-based transactions.

The Central government’s decision of denouncing notes of Rs 500 and Rs1,000 on November 8 paralysed the functioning of wholesale markets in the city. Since the currency scrapping was announced, the wholesale markets, mainly consisting of migrant labours and workers, bore the brunt with a loss of over 80 per cent in the business.

With absence of currency in the market, Ajay Sharma, ex-president of the traders association of one of the largest electrical market in Old Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, believes that the move has only brought trouble for traders and workers. “If the government thinks that going digital and cashless will help traders and workers then they are living in a bubble. The market, which caters to thousands of small time workers and labours, cannot be driven a digital way with having no knowledge about it. The market houses over 2,500 shops where transactions mainly take place in cash. I can’t expect my labourers to deal in online transaction.”

Echoing the similar sentiments, another member from the chemical merchants association in Tilak Bazaar, Khari Baoli, pointed out, “How can a poor labour is expected to know the nuances of going online. Just to make them appraise of what being digital or going online means it would take years. Our dealings are majorly cash based.”

Even traders from Qutub road in Sadar Bazar, Ghazipur Mandi, Gandhinagar and Paharganj market alleged that it’s not possible to have cashless system in such businesses.

“Our business running which is largely dependent on cash can’t switch to online payments with flaky servers to do online payments. The payments are made to loaders, rickshaw pullers and daily wage labourers,” said another trader from Paharganj.

Meanwhile, armed with little or no knowledge about how the online transactions take place, the sellers in Paharganj outrightly denies going the digital way. According to Prahlad Bahadur, who hails from Gorakhpur and deals in rugs and carpets charged that making ends meet is a herculean task for us, how can we go digital where most of us don’t even have bank accounts and have been surviving only on cash.