Video of Child Ragpickers With Demonetised Notes Is From India, Not Pakistan

The video was shot in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow, and not in Pakistan, as claimed.

An old video from Uttar Pradesh is being widely shared with the false claim that it shows people will old 500 rupee notes in Pakistan.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

A video showing two child ragpickers waving around bundles of old, demonetised 500 rupee notes is being widely shared on social media, where users have claimed that it shows visuals from Pakistan.

The claim: The post is being shared with text reading, "Our old Indian 500 rupees notes in Pakistan. Now people will understand why our beloved PM Modi Ji called for Demonitisation... (sic)."

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

(Archives of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No, the video is from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, making the claim about old notes being found in Pakistan false.

How do we know?: To start with, we ran a search with the keywords, "Child ragpickers find Indian notes" on Google.

• This led us to a report dated 31 December 2024, shared by Free Press Journal, which carried screenshots from the video.

• It explained what was happening in the video, but did not mention where the incident took place.

The report was published in December 2024.

(Source: Free Press Journal/Screenshot)

• Next, we ran a reverse image search using Google Lens, which led us to an Instagram post by an account 'akhimishra511'.

• This account appeared to be the source of the now-viral video, sharing it on 27 December 2024.

• A more recent post from 21 August 2025 was longer than the viral video.

• This shows the full video, followed by inputs from the creator, who clarified that the video was shot in Uttar Pradesh, specifying it's location as 'Aashiyaana Chouraha' in Lucknow.

• Taking a cue from this, we looked for the location mentioned in the video on Google Maps, using its street view feature to explore the area.

• Here, we came across a spot which resembles the background of the viral video.

We saw the same green and red boards near white buildings in both visuals.

(Source: X/Google Maps/Altered by The Quint)

Conclusion: A video from Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow is being shared to falsely claim that old, demonetised Indian notes were found in Pakistan.

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