Understanding Perception of Middle Class Citizens Towards Demonetization

Abstract

At evening on November 08, 2016, Tuesday Government of India announced the demonetization of existing notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000. Various reasons were cited by the Government to justify this step e.g. black money, money laundering, fake currency, terror funding, inflation ... After this announcement, people faced many problems in exchanging old notes, withdrawing money from bank and ATMs, many tragic incidents also took place. In order to understand citizen's perception towards demonetization, problems faced by them and kind of service they have received from banks and post office; this survey was conducted in the city of Surendranagar, Gujarat, India. Respondents were asked to give their opinion about likely benefits of demonetization, their experience of service provided by banks and post offices and usefulness of information received from the media. It was found that though majority of the respondents supported the decision of demonetization, there were not sure of its benefits as claimed by the Government. Overall they were happy with the support received from the banks and post offices.