1. Every time I go to an HDFC ATM, I remember an incident that happened nearly 10-12 years ago. It was an ATM near Sarakki. I was standing in the queue to get in for nearly 15 mins. The person inside the ATM was struggling to operate for some reason.
2. Running out of patience, I knocked on the door and asked if there is any problem with the machine. He sheepishly smiled at me and told me "swalpa help maadi, options arta aagta illa".
3. I went in and saw that he was struggling with the English UI of the ATM. I helped him complete his transaction and inquired about his profession. He told he works for a garment factory and was here for the first time to draw some money from the account.
4. Although he knew how to read and write in Kannada, he was feeling very sad and inferior about his inability to transact in English and wished for having an option to operate the ATM in #Kannada. This incident shook me too.
5. With a few like minded friends, we started writing to HDFC to introduce ATM interface and IVR services in #Kannada language. Quickly over a 100+ people having their corporate salary accounts in HDFC wrote to the bank asking for services in #Kannada.
6. In 6 months from there, HDFC introduced Kannada option on ATMs and IVR services all across Karnataka. That's the power of language centric consumer movement.
7. Many of us are perfectly comfortable in English and may have no need to demand services in #Kannada but we must do it for those of our lesser privileged brothers and sisters who know only #Kannada. This is why #ServeInMyLanguage is such an important positive campaign.
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