Barbers, salons rue corona lockdown

Weekends usually mean a trip to the barber’s shop or salon for a haircut, shave, pedicure and so on, but this seems no longer the case in the foreseeable future. Effective from March 23, most barber shops, salons and beauty parlours have downed shutters, following the state-wide lockdown ordered by the state government to stop the spread of coronavirus.

“Weekends used to be the busiest time, when we got close to 10–20 customers. However, due to coronavirus, the number of people visiting our shops had started dwindling even prior to March 23,” Rahamalla Bala Krishna Nayee of the Telangana Nayee Brahmin Seva Sangam told Deccan Chronicle.

According to him, in the Greater Hyderabad region alone, there are close to 15,000–20,000 people who are in the employ of this business, ranging from cleaners and barbers to clerks.

There are close to 70,000 shops across the state.

“Initially, all of us were asked to wear masks and gloves to prevent any cross contamination. We were also instructed to wash our hands every 10 minutes,” Bala Krishna said talking of the time before the lockdown.

The shutdown has meant a loss of about

`2,000 on weekends, stated Gopal M., another barber from Dr A.S. Rao Nagar.

“95 per cent of our income goes towards our rents and household maintenance. With no foreseeable source of income, we request the government to ask landlords to forego the rent for the upcoming months,” said Bala Krishna.

He has also asked the government to give training to barbers on the kinds of infections and health hazards that they expose themselves to and ways to tackle them.

Beauty parlours too are out of business, as they have been shuttered down. Certain people are, however, going online and booking beauty treatments on aggregator applications.

“I had booked for a manicure and pedicure treatment at home. The salon workers maintained good hygiene and did a good job,” said Anjali Ahlawar, a resident of Secunderabad, who had booked a session on March 24.