Senior citizens can't do without cheques

UK phases out paper transactions, India not ready yet

UK phases out paper transactions, India not ready yet

The UK Government recently decided to stop the use of cheques and instead wants paperless banking to be the norm. Unsurprisingly, several senior citizens in UK were up in arms against the move. Sunday MiD DAY asked senior citizens residing in Mumbai for their take on a no-chequebook, no-passbook mode of banking. For 73-year-old Murari Chaturvedi, the chequebook is the easiest way to cut out the waiting involved at ATM centers.
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"I generally sign cheques and give them to my son to withdraw money. ATMs in my area most of the time are shut for technical reasons," says Chaturvedi adding that even for a loan in India, one has to deposit Post Dated Cheques (PDC) with the bank first. For Gaurav Gupta, (25) who has caught onto Internet banking, e-banking argues, "E-banking works for booking tickets and money transfers, but for operational purposes you still depend on the cheques. I still have to give 11 PDCs to the land lord." Most seniors not netsavvy. Dr K Mohan (67) says, "We should be given some time to adapt to the technology."

Shobha Nairm, editor, Dignity Dialogue published by the Dignity Foundation, an NGO for the cause and care of the elder citizens says, "Majority are not technologically savvy, nor do most of them have the infrastructure."

A spokesperson of a national bank says, "It would be good if e-banking is made mandatory as there won't be any fake currency floating in the market. The only problem is that not many are well-versed with (Internet) technology."

Weak E-security
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Cyber expert Vijay Mukhi believes that till the time Indian E-security systems are not perfect, online banking would be risky business. "Even if I do not want to give my account name and password to someone, it can be easily hacked and within minutes my money would be in someone else's account. Net-banking is not safe in the country and I would blame the banks for it as they aren't transparent," says Mukhi.

Green banking

"Paper will get phased out by the end of this decade. This will stop deforestation and trees will be saved. With the advent of mobile and Internet banking the use of paper has already decreased. Many banks have already started sending the bank statements in e-mail formats," says environmentalist Rishi Aggarwal.

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