With people from the north-eastern (NE) states fleeing the city perceiving it to be unsafe for them, the businesses that used to employ them such as beauty salons and spas, restaurants and the hospitality sector, are feeling the pinch. The manpower shortage has compelled some to even shut shop. About 98 per cent of the employees of a well known beauty parlour on Residency Road are from the North-Eastern region. The parlour has been unable to operate with so many employees absent and has been shut for the past five days.
Owners of businesses that have a sizeable number of people from the North-East working for them are anxious to retain those who have stayed on. Says Manjula Gupta, owner of Bodycraft: “We have a lot of employees at all our centres from the north-east. A few have already left the city, so in order to retain the remaining people we had to make immediate arrangements for their transport and we are also arranging for their food. With Eid and the wedding season, we are packed with appointments and cannot run the show without these employees. So we have provided all kinds of security for them.”
Hotels and restaurants in the city also have employees from the North-East. A leading chain of Chinese restaurants, Chung Wah, which has nine restaurants across the city, is now left with only four. A spokesperson from Chung Wah said: “Majority of our employees were from the North-East. With the N-E exodus that was going on for the past one week, most of our employees have left. We had nine restaurants, but due to the lack of manpower we have shut down some and have just four running — on MG Road, Banashankari, Koramangala and Whitefield.”
Businesses are also losing customers. Fusion Lounge was a favourite hangout of those from the North-East. Its manager says its clientele of professionals and students from the North-East has
disappeared. “Besides the working group of people we used to get a lot of N-E students all through the week and hordes of them during the weekend. But for the past one week, the number had gone down drastically,” he said.