Coimbatore: Flower traders and sellers at the busy Poo Market say they are worried about losing their livelihoods permanently, as the second wave of the pandemic has already forced them to either shut their shops or conduct hardly 20% of their usual business. After a pay cut, their employees too are considering alternate sources of income.
Poo Market used to draw at least 600 tonnes of flowers of various varieties and colours before the virus breakout. “There is an economy that functions around the market,” says Hamidul Asiq Ilahi, who has been running Cheran Bouquet Shop for more than a decade. “We have floriculture farmers, who sell to distributors, who in turn sell the flowers to us for a margin. We, wholesalers, sell the flowers to small-time sellers who sell flowers and garlands outside temples and on streets. By closing the market, livelihoods of all these people are destroyed.”