As barbers cry off due to corona scare, villagers help each other out with hair-cuts

Hubballi: With barber shops forced to shut due to the lockdown, the people of a village called Mevundi in Karnataka have found that the way out is to give haircuts to each other. The few barbers whose services they might access are however scared to ply their trade after a person died due to Covid-19 in the district. So people have put style aside, and shaved off their hair altogether.

Mevundi village in Gadag district has population of 5000 people. Most of them are dependent on agriculture. Currently they are jobless as the district is prone to drought at this time of the year. Therefore, villagers visit nearby Gadag or Mundaragi town to engage in construction works to earn their livelihood.

This year, these villagers, who live hand to mouth, have been forced stay in their village due to strict security arrangements made by the district administration after the death of a coronavirus-infected woman.

The villagers have chosen a venue on the outskirts of the village to tonsure their head. Everyday people who need a shave gather here and help each other out.

"I hate long hair in the summer. Temperatures hit 40 degree Celsius here. I had visited a saloon in Mundaragi town last month. But I returned without getting a hair-cutb because the police forced the barber to down shutters, " said a 32-year-old man Durugappa Alur.

Many youths in the village say they are impressed that former cricketer Suresh Raina too got his haircut from his wife due to the lockdown.