NE NEWS SERVICE
PATNA, FEB 8
With digital payments growing fast in India, a beggar in Bihar seems to have taken notes, and now roams around with a QR code placard wrapped around his neck, so people can make e-payments to him instead of cash. A 40-year-old man who asks for alms at Bettiah Railway Station in Bihar gives people options to pay him via digital mode. He also carries a digital tablet with him to check if the payments are received in his e-wallets.
Raju Patel, the digital beggar, who calls himself a follower of the former state chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and attended his programs, is inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India Campaign. The digital beggar said that he never forgets to listen to PM Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio programme, reported the news agency ANI..
Raju Patel said, “I accept digital payments, and it’s enough to get the work done and fill my stomach. I have been begging here since my childhood but I have changed the way of begging in this digital age.”
“After begging, I sleep at the station itself. I could not find any other way of livelihood. Many times, people refused to give alms saying that they did not have cash in smaller denominations. Many travellers said that in the era of e-wallets like pay-phones etc., there is no need to carry cash anymore. Due to this, I opened a bank account, and an e-wallet,” he added.
He also claimed that while most people continue to give him cash, he also receives payments in his e-wallets. He informed that the bank wanted his Aadhaar and PAN card for opening the bank account, so he got himself a PAN made as well to set the ball rolling. He has is account open in the State Bank of India.
