'I have nothing to feed my eight-month-old son except plain boiled rice'

Parshuram Chavanrsquos family including his infant son has eaten nothing but plain boiled rice for over a week since shops no longer accept their money PicsSameer MarkandeNobody has been hit harder by the cash crunch than those living hand to mouth No cash in their hands means no food in their mouths either ldquoI have nothing to feed my eightmonthold son except for plain boiled rice I have money but no shopkeeper is willing to accept itrdquo said Parshuram Chavan a resident of Dohole village about 75 km from MumbaiIndu Bhagel stares at his near empty utensils certain that he will have to sleep on an empty stomachItrsquos not like the family doesnrsquot have money Parshuram and his father both have jobs at the local dairy farm where they earn a respectable Rs 10000 each But his mother Sheela 50 can barely control her tears as she holds up several notes of Rs 500 ldquoWhat do I do with this money that nobody wants I walked 7 km to the market in Padgha and took Rs 2000 with me to buy food but none of the shopkeepers were willing to accept my money Some of them were willing to sell me some food but said they had no change to returnrdquo she recalledAlso Read Demonetisation Woman has miscarriage as Bihar clinic declines old notesSheela Chavan right is not sure what her family will eat once they run out of rice in a couple of daysFor the past week the family of five have survived on nothing but plain boiled rice as they havenrsquot been able to buy pulses or vegetables ever since the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes were demonetised on November 8 Sheela has no way to buy baby food for her infant grandson Mahesh all of 8 months old so theyrsquore feeding him rice tooldquoMain kya karu is paise ka joh kohi nahin letardquo says Indu Bhagel as refuses to take money from his bossldquoI had just Rs 50 in change and managed to buy 2 kg rice with that But even that is almost over now I donrsquot know what we will eat two days laterrdquo said the matriarch of the Chavan familyWhom can we bank onTo those who ask why these villagers do not deposit their money or get it exchanged at the bank the Chavan family said ldquoWe hail from Solapur and do not have any bank account If we go to the bank to exchange the currency we will have to wait in long queues for hours and by the time our turn comes there may not be any money left in the bank Also if we stand in queues who will go to work Our salary will get deducted if we skip work and the buffaloes we take care of will also suffer as they need to be cared for just like childrenrdquoEmpty utensilsThe story is much the same across Dohole village a tribal hamlet just 75 km from Mumbai The village economy depends on the small local dairy units where most of the residents are employed as casual labour One such worker is Indu Bhagel 35 who had not a grain to eat all day yesterday He went to work on an empty stomach so he would at least get his daily allowance of half a litre of milk from his employerldquoI finished the last of my stock of rice on Tuesday night Now no shopkeeper is willing to sell rice to me because I only have Rs 500 I havenrsquot eaten anything since morning and am looking forward to the halflitre of milk It is not enough but at least itrsquos somethingrdquo said Indu as he stared woefully at his empty utensilsThe local business owners are doing their best to support their employers but even their hands are tied Indursquos boss John Kokkat offered an advance on his salary but he had only the old currency to giveldquoMain kya karu is paise ka joh kohi nahin leta What do I do with this money which no one is acceptingrdquo said Indu as he refused the advanceRead Story Post demonetisation donation boxes at Mumbai hospitals flooded with Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notesHis employer John expressed his helplessness ldquoI have just a few Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes with me We deal on credit basis and the market owes me Rs 7 lakh but traders are only willing to pay me in the old currency What can I do with that I am not even able to meet my daytoday business expenses nor I am able to pay wages to the 15 people working at my dairy unitrdquoJohn added that while he appreciated Prime Minister Modirsquos move to curb black money he also believed that the government should have put more thought into how it would impact the common man ldquoThe people who worked with the prime minister on the plan should have done better home work Traders like us and daily wage earners are bearing the brunt of the decision We have no money for our daily expenses and our entire business has been affected badlyrdquoBanking system downMost of the ATMs in the Padgha district including those belonging to nationalised banks had no money and the shutters were down Rajaram Thackeray from Kalamboli village said ldquoSome bank employees in Padgha were initially giving change for Rs 1000 in return for a commission of Rs 200 When locals complained the matter reached some senior officials and now all cooperative banks have been advised not to take any deposits from public we are only allowed to make withdrawalsrdquoThe manager of the Thane District Cooperative Bankrsquos Padgha branch SL Ghaywat confirmed that they have stopped accepting deposits from public claiming they were merely following instructions from the Reserve Bank of India RBIldquoWe are getting only Rs 2000 currency notes from our headquarters for disbursement We have not got lower denominations so far Our requirement of cash is Rs 1 crore but we are getting only Rs 25 lakh which we somehow disburse to all our customers who stand in queue With no deposits coming to the bank and only cash being withdrawn the banking system will surely be impacted unless this matter is sorted out soonrdquo he addedGP Parsik bankrsquos branch manager Shantaram Takane also confirmed the severe cash crunchldquoWe have 12000 customers but we get only Rs 3 lakh to disburse to the hundreds of people standing in line It is just not possible to serve everybodyrdquoA customer at the bank complained that bank staffers were behaving rudely with them ldquoWe have deposits with this bank and some of us have availed of home loans from here but still the staff behave as if they are doing us a favour by giving us our own moneyrdquo