More than 100 garment, footwear and cosmetics traders and their staff took our rally in Katras town of Dhanbad and staged a demonstration, demanding permission from the state government to open their outlets.

The march was taken out from the station road of Katras around 11am, observing social-distancing norms and continued for half an hour.

The participants of the march held banners with slogans like “Kapra, juta, chappal, sringar, tailoring, sports dukandar berojgar; vyapari ekta jindabad; hamari dukanen kab khulengi; Jharkhand sarkar ka kahna hai kapda me Corona hai (“Cloth, shoes, chappals, cosmetics, tailor and sports shop owners are unemployed”, “hail traders’ unity”, “when will our shops open” and “Jharkhand government things our clothes are infected with coronavirus”)

The participants also submitted a memorandum to the local police, demanding permission to open their shops.

The protesters claimed that many workers in the shops were not getting salaries due to a lack of income from the shop and are on the brink of losing their jobs.

Dipak Agarwal, a garment shop owner of Katras, told The Telegraph Online that the long-standing relationship between the traders and their staff is on the verge of collapse. They have been unable to open their shops and have not earned a penny in the last three months beginning from March.

“How can the traders continue to pay salaries for an indefinite period of time despite suffering huge losses in terms of lack of income and additionally meeting the maintenance costs like electricity charges besides shops and godown rents?” he asked.

He added that they were also losing their consignments due to their establishments lying closed and cockroaches and rats spoiling their products.

“We are ready to obey all the social-distancing norms and even promise to not allow the customers to try on the garments. We also won’t allow the customer to return any products to prevent chances of infection,” said another shopkeeper .

He said if the situation continues for more than a month, they will be compelled to beg on the roads.

“What is the logic of allowing wine shops to operate while garment, footwear, cosmetics and tailoring shops are supposed to stay closed is beyond our comprehension,” a protester said.