Bazia Sethi (65) of Jayagopal Sahi, Dhenkanal was earning around Rs 15,000 from ironing clothes per month and was somehow managing his household expenses. But he has lost his income for continuous lockdowns and shutdowns due to the Covid pandemic.
Another, Girish Chandra Behera, was running a tailoring shop at Mahavir Bazar. His shop choice tailor was famous in the town. He too was earning around Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 per month from stitching of dresses and mostly during festivals he was earning handsomely.
Though he was not generating any rush that should cause spreading of the virus, he has to shut his shop and thus suffer financially. Similarly scores of small vendors selling Dahibara, Gupuchup, Pampudi chat, Bara, Aluchap, boiled egg, egg roll are out of business thanks to the ban on sale of these eatables at markets. These poor vendors are suffering like anything due to loss of livelihood. The barbers are somehow managing to earn their bread by providing door to door service when their saloons are closed. Besides, cultural sector is the worst affected due to the continuous lockdown since March 2020.
Anakit Pallav Nayak, an engineer, Samir Prusty, Jamini Ranjan Das and Sabita Dhir though are highly educated, they were earning from teaching Odishi dance and classical music and by working in cultural institutions. But now they are sitting idle as all the cultural and educational instutions lie closed.
Regretfully, when the State Government has stopped its financial support to all cultural institutions in State, the Union Government is not releasing regular cultural grants to them during crisis. Meanwhile, people from various quarters, including the District Journalists’ Association, have urged CM to personally look into issue and provide compensation to the genuinely needy.