Shopkeepers selling offerings outside temples hit hard

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, June 10

With temples across the state yet to reopen their doors to devotees, shopkeepers selling offerings outside the shrines are facing livelihood issues.

Sweets, dry fruits, incense sticks, religious bands, decorated dupattas, etc, are often brought by devotees for offering in temples. Such shops also sell rosaries, religious books, the idols of gods and goddesses and various wooden items, which are bought by visitors as memorabilia.

The famous temples of Mata Balasundari at Trilokpur, near Nahan, and Renuka Ji temple are among the major centres of religious pilgrimage in Sirmaur district and there are several shops selling offerings in their vicinity.

The peak season from April to June, which included Navratras, Parshuram Jayanti and other religious festivities has been lost due to the lockdown and only two or three shops have reopened at Renuka Ji after the state government’s permission.

Kapil Sharma, a shopkeeper, said, “Earlier, my mother used to sell temple offerings for the visiting devotees. I have been running a shop at Renuka Ji for the last five years. I am unable to earn even Rs 100 a day. The rent of the shop is Rs 2,500.”

“Shops here do the business of Rs 50,000 per month in the peak season, but the lockdown has adversely hit our business. Some locals do come to buy certain things,” said Sharma, who has a family of five to support.

Like Kapil Sharma, many shopkeepers here gave up farming in their native villages and started business at Renuka Ji to eke out a living.

Ravinder Verma, former CEO, Renuka Board, said a majority of the shopkeepers here had migrated from villages and were dependent on these shops only.

He said that some employable skills could be taught to them to sustain themselves and the government should take some initiative in this regard.