Mahbubnagar: Lockdown takes a toll on wedding industry

Mahbubnagar: Covid-19 lockdown imposed by both state and Central governments has adversely impacted the marriages during the marriage season i.e., March to May this year.

With majority of marriages either postponed or cancelled, the allied business sectors such as gold merchants, photography, cloth merchants, flower sellers, decorators, caterers, marriage material suppliers, function hall owners, caterers etc, whose business is linked with marriage season, have been badly affected across the erstwhile Mahbubnagar.

According to a rough estimate, during the marriage season between March to June 2020 as many as 3,570 marriages are expected to take place across the five districts of Nagarkurnool, Narayanpet, Wanaparthy, Gadwal and Mahbubnagar. However, only 480 marraiges were conducted and that too without much fanfare and with a very lesser number of participants.

All the businesses linked with marriage programmes have incurred a loss of about 100s of crores of rupees. "During lockdown, the government put restrictions on large gatherings and allowed only 20 members to attend marriage. With this, most of the families either postponed or cancelled marriages, which had an adverse impact on priests' income during marriage season," said Narendra Sharma, a priest.

It was estimated that as many as 4,300 video and photographers, 8,250 gold merchants and 950 function halls across the five districts of Palamuru region have lost their business due to the lockdown.