Ans: Because almost all of them are already on multiple digital payment gateways and do not need cash. I have had less than 500 Rs in my wallet for the past 5 days, and apart from Candies (who STILL does not accept card Aaaarrgghh!!!), I have had to make cash payments nowhere else, and in this interim period, I have travelled to Delhi & back, and within Mumbai to Bandra, Andheri, Alfa and a few other places.
The root of this digital / cash divide is, unfortunately, dual:
1) Education. This is India’s achilles heel. Lack of basic education compounded by a rote-learning educational structure which kills the curiosity in the individual and hence prevents them from learning new things. We do not teach our kids how to learn. Sad. This has prevented the poor, who have access to smartphones & mobile internet, but have not yet moved to electronic money, simply because they have not yet understood it, and are hence treating it with suspicion (humans don’t trust what we don’t understand).
2) General distrust in the ‘system’ – the government system & the banking system. Brought on by decades of decadence & mis-management of the country by the ‘aloo-ki-factory’ government, who, while earning personal wealth, kept India’s per capita income down to 1500$ p.a. This general distrust in the ‘system’ encourages keeping all your assets where you can see them & protect them.