PANJIM: A day after the malls and restaurants began operations throughout the country after being closed for over two months due to the COVID lockdown in the country, the gymnasium owners have now demanded they too be allowed to open their businesses immediately.
The All Goa Gym Owners Association held a peaceful demonstration at Campal, Panjim, with proper social distancing and demanded to know why their businesses are being singled out and shut while others are opened.
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“I want to ask the Ministry of Health why gyms are closed. Give us a technical reason. If the malls and restaurants can restart, then why not gyms?” asked Vishnu Uskaikar, General Secretary of the Association.
He said they understand that in wake of COVID, everything was closed but opined that continuing to keep gyms closed now is a biased attitude.
“The government is asking everyone to become ‘atmanirbhar’, we all are ‘atmanirbhar’. We have taken loans and set up gyms and also provided employment to others,” he said. Uskaikar further said they have taken the burden for two months but cannot continue in this situation now.
“We have rents and loans to pay now besides salaries,” he stated.
Ramesh Ghadi, a Saligao-based gym owner, said since gymnasiums have been closed for almost three months after the lockdown, a large number of regular gym users are showing signs of decline in their fitness. “They feel weak, unfit, lethargic and tense. They need their regular gym sessions to resume for them to be able to get their fitness back,” he said.
Further, he said, owning a gym is a small time business; and that they there around 150 gymnasiums around Goa, where most of the owners are former sportsman, athletes or bodybuilders who got in to this business just for love of it.
“After this closure period of three months, these gym owners are finding it very difficult to survive. There’s rent, trainers wages, water and electricity bills etc. Everybody is tense,” he said.
He added that with a proper SOP, gymnasiums will be much safer than many other trades, which are already open.
“A humble request to our government and authority concerned, please consider opening our gymnasiums at the earliest,” he urged.
