The Covid-19 pandemic and the need to maintain social distancing have forced people in the national capital to postpone their wedding ceremonies or some couples to opt for small intimate affairs instead of their big fat events, which has affected businesses of bands, caterers, and owners of marriage halls in the city.
With the wedding season a little more than a month away, a dull phase largely looms over the industry. Saurabh Gupta, who co-owns Satya Tent House in Ashok Vihar, says by November every year, he is packed with wedding bookings. But since the Covid-19 hit the city, he hasn’t received a single booking.
“In a normal situation, we would struggle to find time to rest during this time of the year. This is supposed to be the peak season for us. My business has gone down to zero,” says Gupta, whose father had started the business 45 years ago. Gupta’s business deals with setting up tents and arranging lights, but, he says, due to limited public number of guests, large tents are no longer useful.
“The pandemic has disrupted everything. We haven’t got a single booking since we re-opened the banquet hall after the lockdown restrictions were lifted," he added.
Ever since the pandemic hit, marriage ceremonies were reduced to an intimate, cosy affair with the restricted 50-guest gathering.
However, in the Unlock 4.0 guidelines recently announced by the Centre, social gatherings will now allow up to 50 guests from Monday.
The decision brings in a sense of relief for the to-be-couples as well as wedding vendors in the capital.
Delhi has around 300 banquet facilities and most of them with multiple halls within their premises, taking the total number of halls to over 1,000.
But during the wedding season, 30,000 to 50,000 marriages, small and big ones, take place in a single day.
Banquet halls were closed in March after the nationwide lockdown was imposed in the city, because of which the economy was severely hit.
In June, when as the Covid-19 cases started rising exponentially in the city, Health Minister Satyendar Jain held a meeting with banquet hall owners and decided to attach the halls with hospitals to provide additional beds. Of the 300 banquet halls, 80 were attached to different hospitals. Last month, members of the banquet halls association met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and thanked the government for opening banquet halls in the national capital and suggested various measures to revive the banquet hall industry.
Under Unlock 4.0, the halls were allowed to resume normal operations as per the government guidelines, but the lack of confidence among customers and no clear guidelines from the Aam Aadmi Party government has put banquet hall owners to confusion.
The members of the associations, however, said various labourers have left the city due to lack of work in the hospitality industry, and they can come back if opportunities arise again. It has been tough for young Aleem Khan as well.
His father had recently handed over him the family business family — Raja Band which performs at weddings.
But with the business completely shut amid the pandemic and no income in the recent months, he is thinking of shutting the shop forever.
“If the number of cases does not go down within a few days, there is a strong chance that I will lose my entire business. The Covid-19 crisis has left a huge financial impact on our establishment. Even though we received a few inquiries, but wedding organisers are themselves not sure about the number of guests who will eventually turn up,” Khan says.
Raja Band, based in Noida, also works in different parts of Delhi. “We also have two horses that need proper care. The daily cost of their food goes up to Rs 700-800. If the situation doesn’t change in the coming days, I might have to release them and remove a few of my staff,” adds the owner.
According to Khan, there has 90 per cent of the business as compared to the same period last year. “Our business is in a bad shape.
There is a lack of confidence among the organisers. Even guests are not confident enough whether they would be able to turn up for the ceremony since there is too much risk involved. My business is down by 80 per cent compared to the last year,” laments Vinay Mehra, owner of Lata Greens Wedding Lawns on Mehrauli-Gurugram Road.
Mehra says he hasn’t laid off any of his employees in the last six months despite a massive loss in the business. He, however, doesn’t guarantee the same for too long. “The next few months will be very crucial for all of us,” he says.
Sanjeev Nagpal, owner of Green Longue and Banquet — a chain of five establishments across Delhi, however, sees some ray of hope of revival.
“Increasing the public gathering limit is the only solution to save the event management industry. Otherwise, financial setbacks will continue. Also, the government should take some confidence-building measures so that more people could come out with proper with precautions,” says Nagpal.
Although the guests limit at weddings has been increased to 100, owners say that this is not enough, as there are many fixed costs to run such halls.
Nagpal adds that when a wedding takes place, the earnings of many people from the unorganised sector, mainly labourers, are dependent on decoration, lighting and tent arrangements. Guesthouses, dependent on events such as weddings and conferences, have also been badly hit by the Covid-19 lockdown.
“When weddings and other such events take place they help in the growth of our business as people stay at guesthouses or hotels for a day or two. The business has been hit by 80 per cent due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, we do not see any great scope of revival until a vaccine available in the market to the virus,” says Jagpreet Arora, president of the Karol Bagh Guest House Welfare Association. Brijesh Goyal, president of AAP’s trade wing, says the wedding business will see an improvement in the coming few days.
“The Delhi government is standing by the owners during these tough times. A standard operating procedure (SOP) will also be issued soon,” he says.