MUMBAI: Next time you visit a temple or a place of worship and have to remove your footwear to gain entry into the place, you need not worry about your footwear getting robbed or lost.
A new crop of service providers have sprung up in the metropolis who will now take care of your slippers and shoes while you concentrate on your prayers.
Cashing on the ongoing festive season, these service providers have set up shop at several religious places and discourse venues.
They do not charge for their services but instead take money from the temple administration or organisers of religious functions.
"To enable worshippers to conduct their prayers in peace, at many religious places we have counters where we take care of the footwear of devotees," Badri Shah, who runs the 'Naina Footwear Caretaker' in suburban Ghatkopar told PTI.
"For this purpose, we have ready-made wooden and steel stands. We issue tokens to ensure that footwear is returned to the rightful owner," Shah said.
Shah employs around a 100 men who get direct employment at various religious functions in the metropolis.
He also gets orders from neighbouring Gujarat and also from Rajasthan, he said.
PTI