Gym owners demand immediate opening of the health centers
Akash Dhanurkar
The nationwide lockdown has caused several businesses to shut down. Even after the center and state has allowed many businesses to operate, it has still not given a green signal to the gymnasiums to operate. And due to this many gymnasium owners or health instructors are left with no jobs. Sadly these fitness instructors are left with no employment in their hands.
Though the trainers are now taking up online fitness training classes there is still a huge demand for gymnasiums to remain open for keeping mind and body healthy.
Pune Pulse reached out to few of the fitness industry experts, who expressed their displeasure over government’s stand of not opening the gyms.
The gyms in Maharashtra have been shut down since the lockdown was announced on March 24. The state relief and rehabilitation minister, Vijay Wadettiwar had announced the re-opening of indoor gyms on 15 August, but there was no immediate action on the decision, which also enraged many gym goers and owners.
Pune Pulse correspondent’s frequent calls went unanswered.
On speaking with Nitin Gharal, a gymnasium owner and a resident of Sangvi, he said, “I own a gym for which I have to pay a monthly rent of close to Rs 1 lakh amid this situation when I am having zero income. To bring back the only source of income for all the gym owners and staff, I had written to the office of CM, and even followed up with sports minister. But, to my surprise, no relaxation has been given yet even when we are ready to follow social distancing norms with limited members in the gym.”
Mahendra Chavan, a renowned body builder in the state and the head of ‘Gym owners’ association’, said, “The gym owners whom I have known for years for their work in our industry have started selling vegetables. Few of them, who have the loan to be paid and are in great crisis. The state government must understand that we are ready to follow all the protocols and norms while running the gym, but please allow us to operate our only source of income.”
As the online sessions are catching the popularity, Pune Pulse spoke with an online trainer and personal gym instructor, based in Pimpri, Sumeet Yadav he said, “Online training is surely the best option during the COVID situation, but it is very tough to analyze the flow of workout through the video calls. But since, we are left option less, we have to instruct the workout virtually. However, the online training has also benefitted me in terms of limited usage of resources.”
Shreepad More, the owner of Gold’s Gym, Wakad, said, “One side, Government says that one must boost immunity to defeat COVID, and they restrict people from joining gyms and other fitness clubs. We are anyways suffering as neither landlords nor loan can stay unpaid for a long time.”
On reaching out to the sports minister of the state, Sunil Kedar, he did not answer our frequent calls.
