About 1.5 lakh  beauticians remain jobless for couple of months; are struggling to continue their livelihoods across the country due to Covid Pandemic.

Over 15,000 beauty parlour owners could not able to deliver most of the beauticians salary and bonuses.

The entrepreneurs said they did not get any assistance from any government or private sources.

Raahela Khatun, owns Shopnochura Beauty Parlour in the capital’s Rampur area, told Business Mirror that she opened the parlour last couple of days but failed to woo any customers. “I cannot send my employees home as they are poor girls. Apart from that I have to pay the house rent, salaries of the beauticians on my own.,” She said.

“ If government allow the sector as formal sector and allocate some house rent on executive order, we would have been benefitted, Sayma Jabin another owner at Malibagh said.

Rubina Yasmin said “I am struggling with parlour rent, staff salaries, electricity bills and security guards. That’s why he closed my parlour.”

Mentioning that everyone’s income is higher at this time than the whole year, she said: “The employees had high hopes that they would get salary and bonus during Eid-ul-Fitr. But everything came to a halt, stalling loan payments and other dues. I can’t guess what will happen next. We expect government will arrange grant or loan for beauty business and hope to make up the financial loss if interest rates on our current loans are reduced to 2 to 3 percent. We also hope the house rent will not be charged.”

Raisa Roy, the owner of Raisa’s Beauty Parlour in Siddheswari, said, “I started this beauty parlour own my own money. No one has come since March when lockdown was imposed. At that time, I paid my employees and sent them on leave. I told them to rejoin the workplace when everything is normal.”

Sources said the beauty parlor business started growing in the country in the early 1980s. Now the service is spreading fast beyond the major cities like Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet.

Sources said there are nearly 15,000 parlors across the country with over 0.15 million employees.