Govt's poor vision leaves visually impaired vendors struggling with new notes, coins in Chennai

CHENNAI: Demonetisation and frequent change of denominations, termed a game-changer in fighting black money, have proved a disaster at least to one segment of society in the city – the visually challenged. Hawking toffees and stationary on Chennai suburban EMU trains, these vendors who are either blind or suffer from poor vision complain of getting cheated because of their inability to identify new coins and notes.

"The changes effected in smaller denomination notes and coins after the withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes have hit us hard. We often get cheated by those with eyes as we no longer can read most of the new coins and notes by touch," said I Raman, a visually impaired vendor at Chennai Central. "We have no other go but to trust what our customers say. I can't make out even this note in my hand, given by a customer," he said showing a Rs 10 note in his hand.

Raman's tale took DT Next to another four of his 'friends' – R Kannan, K Nehru, P Nakesh and Rajendran, all selling eatables on trains and at Villivakkam railway station – who too attested to the "daily trauma frequent change in currency size" has brought in. "Rs 10 coin is periodically getting changed. Also, coins of Rs 2 and Re 1 hardly differed from each other," said K Nehru.

"Frequent change in notes and particularly coins has made us vulnerable to narrow-minded customers. There are several occasions when we were cheated," said R Kannan.

They, however, laugh off the problem as they have come out from the same Government Higher Secondary School For Visually Impaired in Poonamallee. "The issues with identifying the notes are faced by all of us since demonetisation. Even the coins keep changing. The Rs 10 coin is now small in size and there is no Braille added to them," said S Namburajan, state vice president of TN Association for the Rights of the Differently Abled and Caregivers.