Over the last two months, thousands of Indians have spent hours in queues to access their hard-earned money. Yet, the broad support for prime minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation drive hasn’t waned.
Almost all the respondents in three weekly surveys conducted by citizen engagement platform LocalCircles said they support the “cause of demonetisation,” though there is much derision directed at its implementation. The surveys were conducted between Nov. 14 and Dec. 29.
LocalCircles has over 1.2 million members who discuss issues of governance and other matters of public interest on the platform. The online surveys were conducted across 220 urban and semi-urban district of India. The average age of the respondents, 68% of whom were male, was 35 years.
An overwhelming majority in the LocalCircles surveys also said that they supported “reasonable” cash withdrawal restrictions if that helps curb money laundering. There is currently a Rs10,000 monthly withdrawal limit for Jan Dhan Yojana accounts and a Rs50,000 cap for other accounts.
There have been recurring doubts over demonetisation’s success in curbing black money and money laundering. The survey reflects this sentiment as most believe hoarders have already laundered their unaccounted cash.
The common man is still struggling to get hold of the new currency notes.