On Saturday night, fisherman Anthony Manbhat sold his catch to Ujwal Mhatre at the Sarvodaya Fishermen Co-operative Society at Pachubandar in Vasai (West) and set a precedent by becoming part of the first fishermen co-operative in the country by accepting payment via digital mode during a fish auction. The initiative is part of a campaign initiated by Jagruk Nagrik Sanstha (JNS), a non-government organisation (NGO), of making entire Vasai digital, said Chinmay Gavankar (35), sales manager at IBM and a founding-member of the Vasai-based NGO that was founded in 2008 and comprises 120 members. Commenting on the initiative, Sanjay Koli, chairperson of Sarvodaya Fishermen Co-operative Society, said, Demonetisation of Rs1,000 and Rs500 notes have hit the fishermen hard, and the shortage of cash has aggravated the situation. The JNS approached us and said we could opt for digital payment. So we invited them to give us a demonstration on Saturday at our Vasai office. The event received a great response from the fishermen. Elaborating the initiative, Gavankar said they have tied up with Udio, a social mobile wallet, which has partnered Visa. He added that the app has been developed by Sandip Ghule, a Vasai resident and a JNS member. Moreover, Udio has tied up with the Ratnakar Co-operative Bank (as per RBI rules). We helped fishermen to download the applications of mVisa, using which they can transfer and receive money. Though fishermen are willing to go digital, they are wary about doing monetary transactions on mobile phones, as they aren’t tech-savvy. To help them overcome these apprehensions, we taught them how to transact and receive payments using the mobile wallet. We also issued 50 mVisa cards and assisted 30 app downloads, Gavankar said. Following the success, Gavankar said a team of 60 volunteers from the NGO has now started a drive to educate vegetable vendors, milkmen, and small-time businessmen, dealing in cash, to go digital. Even doctors have shown interest in our initiative. We have been invited by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Vasai chapter, to demonstrate the pros of our go digital campaign, on December 13. Even the doctors are facing issues while accepting payments from patients, he said. Dilip Mathak, the first to download the application on his mobile phone, said, Fishermen need a lot of convincing, so I was the first to take the initiative. Vasai is the first fishing town in the entire country to go digital. We’ll be spreading the message of going cashless to other community members from Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and other coastal states.
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