After Gujarat's Akodara village, now this tiny village in Maharashtra is making news for going completely cashless

Akodara, a small Gujarat village, recently made news for being the first Indian village to go cashless. Now, following in its footsteps is another small village near Mumbai where everyone is learning to making payments through electronic transaction, whether it's to buy vada pav or tractors.

Dhasai is a small village in Thane district 70 kms away from Mumbai, which serves as a financial hub for 60 neighbouring villages. The village has over 150 businessmen and 400 traders.

With a population of approximately 10,000 people, it is the first village in Maharashtra to go cashless. Dhasai was chosen for this initiative because of the simple reason that all the villagers here and in the surrounding 25 villages had bank accounts opened under the Jan Dhan scheme, and so all of them had debit cards.

Bank of Baroda and an NGO called Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak decided to transform Dhasai into a digital village. The NGO has been training the villagers in using digital methods of transactions, following the demonetisation of banknotes.

NGO chairman Ranjit Savarkar, who is also Director at the Maharashtra Military School in Murbad, recently said - “The effects of demonetisation have largely been painted in a negative way, particularly with regard to the effects on villagers. Recently in Parliament, Congress leader Anand Sharma wanted to know if a farmer could carry a debit card in his dhoti; the same farmer carries cash in his dhoti, why can’t he carry a debit card?”

Savarkar said he chose Dhasai to implement his idea as its population is less than 10,000, adding there are three to four such small villages in every taluka in Thane district which could go cashless.

After Dhasai was the top choice, Point of Sale machines were handed over to around 100 traders in the village, and installation security deposits and monthly rentals were waived off.

Villagers were initially hesitant as they felt they wouldn't be able to grasp the technology. Meetings were held with the villagers to dispel this myth and to educate them on the various features of the PoS machines like electronic wallets and RuPay cards, which they could used for all monetary transactions.

On Thursday, 39 more card swiping machines were commissioned in Dhasai. By this time, everyone - from traders, street hawkers, barber, doctors, vegetable sellers, fruit vendors and others providing goods and services - was seen using swipe machines for cashless transactions.

Bank of Baroda says it will be charging 0.75% transaction charge on transactions that are lesser than Rs 2000. Meanwhile, traders have been given concessions as they are being encouraged to open current accounts for Rs 2,000, instead of Rs 10,000.

It is also being planned that school teachers and children will be educated on how to use the machines.