Chennai: The Tamil Nadu hairdressers union has petitioned the state government to allow them to work for at least five hours a day.
The state government has banned salons, barber shops, beauty parlours and spas.
The petition was submitted to the district collectors and Chief Secretary of the state on Monday evening after the state government prevented beauty parlours and saloons from functioning.
“Our business has come down by 80 per cent, we were done after the pandemic and had only recently slowly started looking up when this has come as a bolt from the blue,” M.R. Vijayakumar, Chennai unit secretary of the Tamil Nadu Hairdressers Union while speaking to IANS said.
“We were now getting hardly one to three persons a day and with the new order it’s all gone and I am staring at a future wherein my family and the families of lakhs of our people are to suffer. Government must allow a five hour time for us to open the salons so that at least the hunger pangs can be quenched.”
The Hairdressers in Kanyakumari and Nagercoil areas of Tamil Nadu are also worried about the government decision.
Shanmugan, a salon owner at Kaliyakkavilai in Kanyakumari district told IANS: “We are totally devastated after the pandemic and I have to sell my home to meet the expenses.
“We were almost coming back when the second wave hit and the government has now issued a notification to shut down all the saloons and beauty parlours. Our association has already petitioned the government to at least allow us to open the salons for five hours a day from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. so that we survive.
“We have workers in our place who also have families to support. Hope the government will heed to our plea.”
