Cash runs out, salon workers struggle

Aditi.R@timesgroup.com

Chennai:25.04.2020

For the past four days, Rashmi Das and her roommate Renuka have been surviving on soups so they can save some rations for the coming days. While they find it hard to get adequate food, they are also having a hard time from residents of their neighbourhood.

“When we went out to buy groceries a few days after the lockdown began, there were three men on a bike shouting ‘Corona Corona’ at us. We got scared and returned,” said Rashmi, who works with Renuka as a beautician in a retail salon chain. Since then, the native of Nagaland added, even people in the building where they live had become hostile. “Nobody talks to us anymore.”

What is bothering them more is a recent message from the owners of the salon that employs them. “We were told that a few of us will be laid off since they have incurred a lot of loss. There is too much tension now,” said Renuka.

A large number of men and women working in salons in the city are from the Northeast. When the lockdown was announced, many attempted to return home, but are now stranded here with very little money and fewer essentials.

“The lockdown was announced all of a sudden. The parlour has been shut since and we have no idea when it will reopen. We can earn money only if it does,” said Kamalika Mukhi, a hairstylist from Mizoram.

A few others alleged that they had not received their full salaries for March. “We only received 15 days’ salary last month and our owner said we will have to wait to get the rest. And this month again we have no salary but have many bills to pay,” said Tenzin Bhumo, another hairstylist. He said his landlord has been pressuring him to pay the rent before the end of this week. “We are three people and none of us have jobs or money. But he doesn’t understand our situation. I have asked a few people to lend us some money,” he said.

A few owners, however, have been doing their bit for their staff. M Vijayalakshmi, manager of a popular beauty salon, said they had been distributing essential commodities and money to their employees, once a week. “We are incurring losses and it would take at least eight months, after reopening, to compensate it. But in the meantime, we are supporting them as much as we can,” she said.

When we went out to buy groceries a few days after the lockdown began, there were three men on a bike shouting ‘Corona Corona’ at us. We got scared and returned 

RASHMI

Beautician in a retail salon chain