Ahmedabad: After the Gujarat government announced ruled out commercial or traditional street garbas in the state for the current year owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the local vendors of Gujarat have raised concerns over losses to their business as Navratri celebration will be kept low-key this year.
As Garba is banned under the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) it will have a negative impact on the business of many people associated with mandap decorations, beauty parlours, clothing, food and beverages.
Garba is a popular folk dance of Gujarat and is performed with passion and fervour during the Navratri festival.
Prior permission of government authorities has been made mandatory for the organisation of community prayer programmes during Navratri. At prayer gatherings, COVID-19-related norms such as social distancing, covering of face with masks and use of sanitisers will be mandatory.
According to an estimate, Rs 250 to 300 crore will be directly lost due to the ban on Navratri Garba in Gujarat.
The business community is disappointed and wondering whether the Diwali festival is also going to be spoiled this year. Traders have stockpiled goods worth crores of rupees.
ETV Bharat interviewed people from various trade and businesses to know the impact of the government’s decision on traders and found that they had suffered losses during the last 6 to 8 months of lockdown and were hoping to recover part of their losses during the Navratri and Diwali festivals. However, their hopes have dashed because of the ban on Garba and restrictions on celebrations.
Law Garden is a public garden with a market for handicraft goods. During festivals, the sale of these handicraft pieces increases and vendors manage to earn well, but since the novel coronavirus hit the country, the businessmen are upset.
Expressing disappointment over a business setback, a local shopkeeper at the Law Garden market said, "Navaratri festival boosts our sales, but this time it won't be organised. People are not buying lehengas or other stuff which used to be profitable for us."
In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, the Law Garden traders said, "Navaratri festival boosts our sales, but this time it won't be organised. People are not buying lehengas or other stuff which used to be profitable for us. This time we had to sell dresses to a few customers who risk visiting the market. Earlier, by this time, people used to throng the market leaving no space to stand. This year, the traders of fancy dress for Navratri have suffered a loss of at least Rs 2 crore."
Every year, Garba used to be held on 80 to 100 party plots. The rent of each party plot along with its decoration is estimated to be between Rs 20 to 50 lakh. Moreover, there used to be food stalls where the catering business would be doing profit of worth Rs 7 crores and the music and sound systems would account business worth Rs 5 crore. The security service and orchestra would cost Rs 2 to 2.5 crore.
"We have been doing this business for the last 40 years and every year during Navratri we provide sound and decoration all over Gujarat daily," Pintubhai Thakkar, owner of Bhavani Sound, which works on sound and lights at the biggest venues like the famous Karnavati Club in Ahmedabad, told ETV Bharat.
"We employ 2000 to 3000 people and we have to increase this number during Navratri. But due to the cancellation of Garba this year, we have not even taken out our goods from our godown even though we have no income, we are paying salaries to our men. At least 2,500 to 3,000 people have lost the opportunity to be employed by the decoration sector." He added.
"The catering and hotel industry too would face great losses," says the oldest and biggest party plot owner Bhavesh Purohit.
S K Dwivedi and Bobibhai, who provide security service in most of the party plots in Ahmedabad told ETV Bharat that they have laid off 400 to 500 of their staff this year. Every year they used to recruit 100 to 200 additional people for Navratri.
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