Demonetisation cause of domestic discord

Many husbands failed to exchange money saved by their wives in old currency notes during the 50 day exchange period which led to quarrels between husbands and wives.

Bhopal, Feb 6: Failure of men to exchange and return little sums saved by their wives in demonetised bills has caused a spurt in domestic discord, says a study conducted by an NGO.

"Women who had saved bills of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations, which were scrapped on November 8 last year, handed those currency notes to their husbands to get them exchanged during the post note ban period. "But in many of the cases, the men did not return the exchanged money to their wives, leading to quarrels between them," said Sarika Sinha, president of Gauravi, a one-stop crisis centre (for helping women in distress), jointly run by NGO ActionAid and Madhya Pradesh Public Health and Family Welfare department.

"Gauravi centre has registered 200 cases of domestic violence, primarily fights between husband and wives from November last year to January end this year in Bhopal, which comes to around 67 such cases monthly. Earlier, an average of about 50 cases per month of domestic violence were reported from the state capital," Gauravi's co-ordinator Shivani Saini said.

The women, in their complaints put up before the Bhopal District Family Dispute Counselling Centre, said they had fights with their husbands after they failed to buy necessary household items like LPG cylinders and milk for want of the currency notes post demonetisation. On the other hand, the husbands claimed that the money which their wives saved had been stolen from their pockets, Saini said.

PTI