Reserve Bank of India to make currency identification easier for blind people

People who are visually impaired use the sense of touch to identify various objects, including money. It is therefore important that the currency in place should be easy to identify through touch.

The new rupee notes introduced after demonetisation were widely criticised as being inaccessible to people who are visually impaired. Now, in a welcome announcement, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that it would create a device that will enable visually impaired people to use Indian currency easily.

In a recent policy review statement, the RBI has said that it is considering the idea of developing a suitable device or system that can help visually impaired people identify bank notes.

This is a much needed facility, as blind people have been facing many challenges using the rupee notes presently in circulation.

In 2017, a PIL was filed in the Delhi High Court to highlight the difficulties that visually impaired people were facing using the new Rs 50 and Rs 200 notes. The PIL said that unlike previous versions of the Indian currency, the new notes did not have any special features that could help in their identification.

Ideally, the notes should be printed in different lengths and width. There should be unique features on it that enable people to recognise it by touch.

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