Barber shops, salons reopen in Kochi only for haircut

Barber shops and salons reopened in Kochi on Friday amid the COVID-19 lockdown, but are only allowed to offer hair cutting services to the people.

Barber shops and salons reopened in Kochi on Friday amid the COVID-19 lockdown, but are only allowed to offer hair cutting services to the people. Barbers said that their income is low as compared to what they earned before the lockdown was enforced in late March.

''After weeks of getting permission to open barber shops, it is not looking good. For the last two days, we did not meet with the income which we earned before lockdown. We want the government to change the working time at 9 pm instead of 7 pm. We earned around Rs 3,000 daily before lockdown. Now we are hardly getting Rs 1,500 daily," Reghu, a barber said. In addition, the state government on Thursday announced that the sale of liquor will start soon.

"Due to the lockdown, all the major revenue sources of the state have been affected. There was a huge fall in revenues. In this case, an attempt is being made to find a new source of income," the Chief Minister's Office had said in a statement. (ANI)