TIRUNELVELI
Assuring that they would adhere to the COVID-19 norms on their premises, members of Tirunelveli District Hairdressers’ Welfare Association submitted a petition at the Collectorate on Monday.
The petitioners, led by district president S. Shanmugavel Murugan, said the State Government, as part of the revised COVID-19-induced lockdown, had announced that the salons under the Corporation and municipal areas would remain closed until further orders in the wake of the ‘second wave’ of COVID-19 spread.
When the salons were locked a few months during the same period last year, the hairdressers, having lost their livelihood, suffered a lot to feed their families.
The relief of ₹ 2,000 per family announced by the Government was accessible only to a few.
“We were starving, along with our children, after the sudden closure of the salons. Plight of the hairdressers’ families, which had taken loans from the banks, private financial institutions and the moneylenders, was worse. Most of us could not get the relief announced by the government. Unable to bear with the situation, some of our members had committed suicide,” said Mr. Shanmugavel Murugan.
He said the salons, on resuming operations after the relaxations, had kept sanitizers in their shops to clean all the instruments and the premises after engaging every customer. However, the latest announcement had reminded them of the worst situation they had to encounter just a year ago even as the hairdressers’ families were struggling to bail itself out of the situation and the loan they had availed.
“The announcement has panicked our members and their families. We don’t need relief… If you can allow us to work with restrictions, it will be enough to feed our families in this difficult phase. We assure the government that we would strictly follow the COVID-19 norms while serving the public and will play our part effectively in fighting the viral infection,” Mr. Shanmugavel Murugan said.
In Thoothukudi, district president of the association M. Esakkimuthu and its members staged demonstration in front of the Collectorate and submitted a petition at the Collectorate.
They demanded ₹ 15,000 as relief to every hairdresser’s family if permission was not given for opening their salons.
