Boatmen community face huge losses amid lockdown in Bhopal
   Date :31-May-2020

Boatmen community_1 
 Boat Club wears a deserted look as it is closed for tourists to
prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Bhopal.
 
 
By Divyansh Thakur :
 
The absence of tourists at the lakes due to lockdown is giving tough time to the boatmen in Bhopal. Around 300 families, whose livelihood depends on all kinds of boating activities, are facing hardships to meet their day-to-day expenses. The boatmen have demanded some relief from the Government as the lockdown has badly affected their means of income in past two months.
 
Gagan Kevat, a boatman at ‘Sheetaldas Ki Bagiya’, told ‘The Hitavada’ that he and his elder son both were jobless as the lockdown was imposed. They switched to other occupations to feed their families and begun to sell vegetables and ice-cream. Kevat further said, “Summers used to be the booming period of our business and people don’t come in winters and during rainy season.”
 
This whole year we will have to suffer and the government should surely provide some aid as nearly 1,000 people of the boatmen community suffered huge loss during this lockdown, the boatman added. The Government should urgently adopt measures to protect these vulnerable people, if coronavirus does not kill them, they’d die of hunger.