Sharp fall in earnings has made it difficult for this cobbler to survive

Avneet Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 22

Veeru Ram (58), who has been working as a cobbler in the city since 1985, does not expect normalcy in his work to return anytime soon. Veeru has a small stall near the cloakroom at the bus stand here from where he repairs buckles, replaces old soles of shoes, stitches broken straps and polishes shoes. The decline in the footfall of passengers at the bus stand due to Covid-19 has badly hit his earnings.

Veeru arrives at the stall at 10 am and works till 5 pm every day. He charges Rs 20 for repair of a broken strap and Rs 100 to 150 to re-sole a pair of shoes. “Though I have reduced the prices for the time being, I have not been getting many customers. My earnings used to be Rs 400 to Rs 500 a day before the lockdown, but now they have reduced to Rs 80 to 100 a day. The amount is not enough to support a family of 12”, he said.

“My son-in-law, who resides with me in Daulat Puri Mohalla, is also in the same profession. He sits near the railway station. My son works as a labourer. Despite the three of us working, we are unable to meet the needs of the family. Life has got really hard,” said Veeru, adding that he had received no help or ration from the government during the lockdown period, leading him to borrow money from his neighbours.

“The government must come to the rescue of people like me who are uneducated and hardly have any idea about the disease. After hearing from residents of my locality that those not wearing a mask would be issued a challan, I started wearing one. In reality, nobody among us has any idea of the gravity of the situation,” he added.

Veeru says he is not a migrant to the city and was born and brought up here. “Generations of my family have been into mending shoes. My son, too, was in the job before he turned a labourer. This is the only craft we know. We only hope that things get better soon as nobody likes to live on the mercy of others,” he said.