Let us work, or provide us support, say musicians, trainers, maids

Salon staffers protest at Bhandup West and Dadar East on Thursday

Even as the city opens up bit by bit under the state-s -Unlock 1.0- guidelines, a new crisis has emerged for housemaids, barbers, gym employees and orchestra artistes, who feel the government has turned a blind eye to their concerns. With almost no means of survival, people from these sections of society held protests across the city on Thursday and demanded immediate intervention of the government in restarting their businesses.

Mumbai has nearly 1 lakh orchestra artistes who perform at different shows and bars. The COVID-19 induced lockdown is showing them the worst days of their life and they have been left at the mercy of NGOs and different associations running welfare schemes.

President of Orchestra Artiste Association, Subhash Jadhav, said, "My association has more than 12,000 artistes and we have been providing them with ration and other provisions since the lockdown was imposed. We took help from many NGOs and contributed ourselves. In this way we managed to help 9,500 members, but it is not possible to do this for three months because nobody has that much savings."

"Now 13 organisations of artistes, who perform in shows and bars, have written to the chief minister seeking help. If this doesn-t work, we either have to protest or die of starvation," he added.

Gyms hit hard

Gym trainers and managers fear they might have to look for jobs soon

It continues to be an extremely difficult time for gym owners and employees as well. The rent that the owners usually pay for the premises ranges from a minimum of R50,000 to R7.5 lakh per month. Some of the managers and trainers held protests across the city on Thursday.

Pritesh Jagtap, 32, manager at an Andheri-based gym, said, "The entire industry has come to a standstill. Our employer is supporting us, but this can-t go on forever. Until and unless gyms start functioning again, we don-t know what our future will be."

Pratik Mungekar, who owns a gym in Mulund said, "I have to pay the rent, electricity and water bills for my gym and also give salaries to the trainers and housekeepers. I can-t afford all of this now. Though the owner of the premises is kind enough to have deferred the payment, but I-ll have to pay him someday. Trainers belong to middle class families and they have meager savings. If it continues this way then we will have to look for other jobs."

Salons threaten to open up

Salon staffers protest at Chembur East

Even salons and barbers have suffered huge loses due to the lockdown. Some of the workers and owners of salons staged a protest on June 10 and threatened to open shops if the government doesn-t permit them.

Salon staffers protest at Bhandup West on Thursday

Prakash Chavhan, secretary of Mumbai Salon and Beauty Parlour Association said, "Our protest had a good impact. Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule has urged the CM to address our issues. We are broke now and have no other option than opening the salons on June 15. If the government forces us to shut them down, then we have to go against it."

-Employers scared to call us-

Hundreds of maids gathered at an area in Mulund on Wednesday demanding the government-s intervention. Some of them claimed that their employers were not allowing them to return to work, as they were scared that they might be carriers of the infection.

Alka Mokal, who participated in protest, said, "My husband passed away six months ago and I have been running the house since then. Employers are scared to call us because they think we might be carriers of the virus. This is happening with most of us. Hence, we demand relief from the government. We don-t like to eat for free. We are willing to work but do not have any."

House help stage a protest at Mulund

Another woman Geeta Raju said, "We are getting rice and cereal, but for how long will this go on? We are not registered as maids anywhere and we don-t have any social security. We don-t know what to do now."

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