Mumbai: Traders seek monthly relief fund, 12pm-6pm shop hours – Times of India

MUMBAI: Right now, Sion’s Paul Nagarajan is in his native Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu where he is known as ‘Mumbai Paul’.
He had arrived in Mumbai as a frail teenager in 1996 “with barely one pair of clothes” and soon became the moustachioed owner of menswear shops, one each in Dharavi and in Thiruvarur. Recently, due to the curbs in the two states, both his shops are shut. But unlike his employee in Dharavi, who has been forced to join a grocery store, employees of his TN shop are not as dire. “Here,” says Paul, “Everyone with a ration card gets a Covid relief fund of Rs 4,000 till the lockdown ends.”
Even as the Maharashtra government looks at extending its restrictions by another 15 days, traders across the financial capital are seeking a “middle path” between lives and livelihoods. Keeping in mind that the state task force has stressed on an “extremely cautious approach” in high risk districts, some traders want shops, including for non-essential services, to be open for longer hours than the current 7am-to-11am standard for essentials. Others are seeking a more considered approach: A monthly relief fund, staggered timings for migrant workers in retail establishments and diversion of out-of-work house help to essential services.
Officials said shops selling essentials might be allowed to remain open for longer .“Asking essential shops to remain open till 11am makes no sense in a city like Mumbai where people wake up late and step out after 11pm at most times.
It would be ideal to allow shops to operate from 12 noon to 6pm,” says Viren Shah, president of the Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association ( FRTWA), who along with other trade leaders and BJP president Mangal Prabhat Lodha, met governor B S Koshyari on Saturday to request the authorities to allow non-essential services to remain open at least for a few hours beyond 11am.
Kishore Kulkarni, secretary of Chembur Merchants’ Association, said while the government expects them to pay taxes like water and property, it is asking businesses to stay shut.
Mukesh Kumar, chairman, Shopping Centres Association of India (SCAI), says it is time to gradually open the sectors in a “safe and controlled” manner as Covid cases are reducing. Citing that malls were allowed to open only at a later stage during the gradual opening of the nation in the unlock phase, Kumar says the recent curbs had affected 80% of the employees working in malls, shops, restaurants and service sectors who belong to economically weaker sections.
“In April-May, the industry incurred losses mounting up to Rs 3,000 crore and will continue to bleed if not reopened soon,” says Kumar, adding SCAI has made representations to Reserve Bank of India and the state governments for financial relief.
Interestingly, in a study in the slums around Cuffe Parade from October 2020 and March 2021, 77% of interviewees in small businesses and blue collar jobs had said yes to the question: “If Covid cases rise, should authorities lock down the city?”
“They didn’t mention their reasons but the data is counter-intuitive, isn’t it?” says Dr Nishant Kumar of NGO Eyebetes Foundation, which conducted the survey whose results challenged the popular assumption that the poor rate livelihoods over lives.
“Unlike the upper classes who have insurance to fall back on, the poor may be worried about leaving behind children without support,” he says.
This may explain why Srithar Tamilan of Mumbai Vizhithezhu Iyakkam (MVI), an association of Tamil residents of Dharavi, is not in favour of relaxation of curbs even though he has seen drivers, maids, construction workers and other Tamil migrants struggle. Confessing that he has yet to see the promised relief of Rs 1,500 reach 25-lakh-odd Tamil migrants in the state, he says shops should be open with restricted or staggered timings and at 50% capacity.