HYDERABAD: AS the Covid-19 pandemic continues to more widespread in the state and country, this year’s Raksha Bandhan festival will be different due to missing usual celebrations. Celebrations will be subdued as people are not opting to go to each other’s places due to the fear, resulting in a huge slump in Rakhi sales, claim the local traders.
Meanwhile, the tensions between India and China have also affected the markets. Every year Pallavi Sharma (25), a native of Delhi, who is working in Hyderabad at an IT firm goes back to her home in Delhi during the Rakhi festival. However, this time she cancelled her plan. “Travelling in trains and flights at this time when cases are increasing can be very dangerous. I was even scared to send a Rakhi courier through an e-commerce website at home as taking deliveries can also be risky for my family there.”
Like Pallavi, T Ramesh, a Hyderabad- based techie has similar concerns. He says, “The lack of public transport is also a major issue during the festival time. The private cabs charge exorbitant money which many can not afford. Every year many of my friends and relatives from nearby districts would come to Hyderabad for Rakhi but this year nobody is planning to travel, we have especially asked the elderly people of our families to stay at home.” With the advent of everything going digital, many people this year are also planning for digi tal Rakhi celebrations.
Traders plight
The owner of Shalini Rakhi, Bipin says, “We have been running the rakhi business for generations. However, we have never suffered such a kind of hit. This year the market is down by 60 per cent. Our regular customers who used to come from nearby districts for wholesale shopping have not come this year.” He claims that part of the reason for this drop is due to the migrant exodus as many of them used to celebrate the festival with much zeal. He adds that this year Chinese-made Rakhi are also off the markets as no import could take place due to the Covid-19 and the tensions between the two nations. There is a very limited variety of Rakhis this year due to this as well. Nagari Ramaswamy, (40) another wholesale dealer who has been running this business for the last 20 years said, “We are also very scared this year to even run the business what we had to do it for our survival. Every year we had a sale of around `40 lakh during this time but this year almost 75 per cent of our sale is gone due to Covid-19.