Festival of lights celebrated across India, but COVID-19 casts shadow on usual sparkle
New Delhi: The festival of lights, was celebrated in India on Saturday. Related to economic prosperity and well-being, Diwali symbolises spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance, but this year the usual shine and sparkle is missing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 effects on Diwali
So far India has had 8,773,479 COVID-19 cases, while 129,188 people have died from the disease.
The ban on bursting firecrackers, imposed to check rising air pollution levels, further dampened the festive spirit across the country. The firecrackers manufacturing business, worth US$800 million (FJ$1682m) to US$933 million (FJ$1961.63m), has been hit hard this year.
Though the data and the figures released in recent weeks indicated an overall recovery in the country’s economy, particularly the automotive sector, the spending capacity is lacking as people faced joblessness or salary cuts over the past few months.
The whole of India had remained under a 68-day complete lockdown beginning March 25, when almost all economic activities came to a halt. As an after-affect, it led to retrenchments, closure of many manufacturing and trading units, or salary cuts, as the supply chains of essential and non-essential commodities were cut.
The federal government has tried its every bit to revive the country’s economy by announcing stimulus packages, but they did not seem to have yielded the desired results. Only a few days ago federal Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the third stimulus package worth over US$35 billion (FJ$73.59bn) in the form of 12 new announcements, in a bid to boost the economy amid slowdown due to COVID-19 pandemic. It particularly aimed at generating new employment opportunities.
India continues to be among the worst COVID-19-hit countries, as the capital city of Delhi and its surrounding areas witnessed a sudden surge in the number of new cases in recent days.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal linked the surge to the rising air pollution levels. Subsequently, he imposed a total ban on bursting of firecrackers in the run up to the Diwali festival.
Later, taking cognizance of the evolving situation of COVID-19 and air pollution levels, the country’s National Green Tribunal (NGT) also imposed a ban on bursting firecrackers.
Over the past couple of days, some traders who tried to violate the ban have been arrested and fined monetarily.
Fireworks ban hits hard
Sivakasi, a town in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and a major hub of manufacturing firecrackers, has been literally shut with no sales this year due to the ban. The business activity provides jobs to over half-a-million people round the year.
Usually, nearly 80-90 per cent of the total firecrackers manufactured in Sivakasi are sold during the Diwali festival season.
Almost 90 per cent of firecrackers demand is met by Sivakasi round the year, said N Elangovan, general secretary of the Federation of Tamil Nadu Fireworks Traders Association.
Speaking to Xinhua over phone from Sivakasi, Mr Elangovan said that India is a country of diverse cultures and religions, and people belonging to almost all the sects use firecrackers for celebrating festivals, wedding or other social and religious functions. “Normally, every year, bulk supplies of firecrackers for the Diwali festival begin from Sivakasi by April-May. This year too, the process began but then suddenly this countrywide ban on bursting firecrackers was imposed. The supplies reached the stockists and retailers across the country, but payments stopped as there are almost zero sales due to the ban,” added Mr Elangovan.
According to him, payments worth US$267 million (FJ$561.3m) have been stopped, as unsold stocks lie with the retailers and stockists across the country.
Sales of sweets, snacks and other eatables, which people usually exchange on Diwali, have also come down.
“This year I am left with only 60 per cent of the normal business done during this time of the year,” Krishan Kumar Yadav, owner of Shri Gujarat Namkeen Bhandar, a manufacturer-cum-retailer of a large number of sweets and snacks, told Xinhua.
“As COVID-19 continues to haunt the country, nearly 40 per cent of the labourers and low-level employees haven’t returned to work yet.
“Hence, their employers haven’t bought stocks of sweets and snacks to distribute among their employees, as they did in previous years.”
He said the sales of other items, like lights and decorative items, picked up over the past two to three days as people tend to engage in festivities by spending on other articles amid the ban on firecrackers.
Anil Hada, a resident of Wazirabad area in Gurugram town adjoining Delhi, said most of his tenants who had returned to their native places during lockdown, have not returned yet.
“While some of them have been asked by their respective employers to work from home, others continue to stay put at their native places for lack of work here,” he said.