Seniors Try Luck With E-wallets

Lack of currency notes has forced many, especially the senior citizens, to pull up their socks and get acquainted to the latest methods of digital transactions like e-wallets.

- Vijay Shekhar Sharma

"I have been using Paytm for a week now and it is very easy," said Subhash Sharmaa (59), a retired government employee. He felt the need to use Paytm after he repeatedly failed to send money to his daughter in Lucknow. "I was tired of standing in bank queues for hours," he said. Sharmaa asked his son to teach him how to operate the application and he has further spread awarness about it among his friends as well.

Though some senior citizens have shown inclination on learning to handle e-wallets like Paytm, many of them have rejected its viability. "I do not know what this government wants. I was a bank employee and I have to struggle for cash myself these days. None of the banks have 100 rupee notes and how can they expect people to work with just Rs 2,000 bank notes in the market?," asked an agitated Shahid Khan (62).

A Paytm user, Yusuf Malik, son of Dr M A Malik, a passerby and a Paytm user said: "My father has been using Paytm even before demonetisation. He has always been very tech savvy and he likes to keep himself in tune with the times."

Even though demonetisation has paralysed residents in so many ways, it might have opened the doors for a digital India that's moving to e-cash, said another resident.

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