Flesh trade declined after demonetisation: Prasad

On the eve of the first anniversary of demonetisation, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today claimed that flesh trade and trafficking of women had reduced substantially in the country due to the move.

He also claimed that the economic move brought down the number of stone-pelting incidents in Kashmir and put a check on Naxal activities.

"Flesh trade has nosedived in India. Trafficking of women and girls has gone down considerably," the law minister told reporters here while listing the "achievements of demonetisation", a day before the Congress-led opposition's proposed "Black Day" protest.

"Due to the flesh trade, a huge amount of cash used to flow to Nepal and Bangladesh...Notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 (now junked) were used to make payments in the flesh trade, which has now come down," he said.

Prasad claimed that the note ban reduced the number of stone-pelting incidents in Kashmir, put a check on Naxal activities, increased the provident fund (PF) and insurance cover of the employees immensely and gave a huge push to digital transactions.

"I have the data," he added.

Earlier in the day, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, speaking in poll-bound Gujarat, had claimed that the note ban exercise was a failure.

"None of its (note ban) objectives was achieved," he had said during an interactive session with businessmen and traders on the current state of the economy.