Accoording to Reserve Bank of India, the accessibility of banking services in Assam is very poor.
A bumpy drive followed by a motorbike ride, then across the mighty Brahmaputra on a boat and finally a 5-kilometer walk on a sandbar will take you to Lakhipur Char, an isolated river island 100 km from Guwahati.
On this sandbar, 200 families who lost their land and livelihood six years ago to erosion have started lives afresh. They grow vegetables and double up as fishermen. For these people, who never felt the need of bank accounts, the government's ban on 500 and 1000 rupee notes have come as a shock.
NDTV met 55-year-old Amjad Ali, who like other farmers here, had always dealt in cash.
"We gave away our old notes but did not get new ones in return. Whatever we produce is perishable and we either have to dump it or sell it at a loss. The note ban has been a harassment for us," Amjad Ali added.
Nearly 15 per cent of Assam's 32 million population -- mostly peasants and fishermen - live on nearly 2,500 island villages on the Brahmaputra and its tributaries.
Apart from a handful -- the larger islands locally known as Char and Chapori --these islands have no power lines and no health service. In the circumstances, a bank, perhaps, is the last priority.
Yet these people produce about 55 per cent of Assam's total vegetable and fish produce, apart from its rich quality jute. The notes ban has also taken a toll on the jute farmers -- 70 per cent of their jute produce is unsold.
"No cash led to no business for the last one-and-a-half month. The bank gives us only 2000 rupees and we do not get change. Neither can we pay our labourers nor can the buyers pay us," said jute farmer Mirza Altaf Hussain.
According to the records of the Reserve Bank of India, the accessibility of banking services in Assam is very poor.
Deposit accounts and credit accounts per 100 people are very low -- only 70 per cent and 6.8 per cent in 2014. The credit deposit ratio is very low: It stands at 37.7 per cent against the All-India figure of 79 per cent.
For nearly three million people who live on the river Islands of Assam, inclusion in the banking system has been a distant dream.
The river island residents say they have never been encouraged to open Jan Dhan accounts. The Customer Service Points that are supposed to act as a "bridge" between remote places like the river islands and the nearest banks, exist only on paper.
"When they come here, we cannot provide good service. So people from the islands who are not literate have little faith on banks and CSPs," said Enamul Haque, Bank CSP representative in Sontoli, the nearest mainland village from Lakhi Char.