The chorus demanding the reopening of gyms grew louder on Thursday through six separate but simultaneous rallies in and around Kolkata.
The rallies took place between Sinthee More and Rathtala, Salt Lake City Centre I and Karunamoyee, Jadavpur 8B and Golpark, Behala Janakalyan and New Alipore, Howrah Dumurjola and Kona and Kanchrapara and Baghmore in North 24-Parganas.
The rallyists included gym owners, trainers, other employees and patrons.
“We had split into six zones because we could not afford crowded rallies,” said a member of the Gym Owners’ Forum of Bengal.
The relevance of gyms as preventive healthcare units that help in building natural immunity and the threat to the livelihood of “around two lakh” people were the talking point at the rallies.
The participants said it was unfair to keep gyms shut when “everything else” was open. There was no slogan-shouting. But people came with posters and banners.
“We build immunity. Show us some humanity. OPEN GYMS,” read a large banner at the head of the rally that started from Jadavpur and went up till the Golpark roundabout in south Kolkata.
Protesters near Golpark on Thursday.
Preeti Anne John, 33, owner of a gym in Picnic Garden, said: “I have several members who have medical conditions and need workout as a therapy. Gyms are part of preventive healthcare. I don’t see any logic in keeping gyms shut when parlours are open.”
When Preeti was walking towards Golpark, Suman Mitra, a trainer at a gym in Dum Dum was walking in the Salt Lake rally.
Mitra was without income for months in 2020 and 2021. Now, he is dreading a rerun. “Last time, I had to break a fixed deposit. This time, I have to sell my wife’s jewellery if the closure continues,” he said.
The rallies started just before noon and went on for a little over an hour.
“Most of us are… running our business on loans for which we have to pay monthly EMI along with rentals to landlords along with trade license fees, amusement tax, ESI, PF, GST and other taxes. Not only the business owners but thousands of their employees, trainers, management staff, housekeeping staff and many allied and dependent business industries are suffering huge losses,” said a formal statement from the forum.
“The industry is seeking the intervention of the chief minister by way of permitting the reopening of the gyms in Bengal,” it added.