Unlock India: The grooming sector could prove to be the key to job creation

NEW DELHI: As India moves towards a gradual exit from the lockdown, the grooming sector can help solve the country’s employment crisis. The industry is confident that thanks to the retraining of workers, it will rebound within two to three quarters.

India’s beauty and wellness sector employs around 70 lakh skilled professionals, mostly from the weaker sections of society. Two out of three workers in the industry are women or migrant workers, who have been hit hardest by the prolonged lockdown. As restrictions eased, countries slowly began to allow the sector to resume operations.

“The beauty and wellness sector is a large employer in India, employing over 70 million professionals, of which 2/3 are women and most of them belong to people from lower socio-economic and educational status. The lockdown has hit the industry hard with a shutdown of over 70 days, impacting livelihoods,” said Rajiv Nair, Group CEO, Kaya Limited, which has over 1,200 employees across over 90 clinics. “We believe the industry will recover within two to three quarters and will once again be a huge contributor to job creation.”

The short-term problems for this industry are enormous. Businesses had to bear these costs despite having zero revenues. “In addition, the cost of doing business once open is likely to be high, increasing by 7-8% when complying with new safety standards. At Kaya, we believe we need to reinvent the business and invest in two key areas – customer and employee safety and technology. We believe these costs are essential to future business success,” Nair added.

Last month, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Nitin Gadkari conducted a webinar with a group of beauty and wellness industry representatives and assured them that the government would consider certain relief measures for the industry.

“Over the past two decades, the beauty and wellness industry has experienced double-digit growth due to demand. Beauty today is an internal requirement, a manifestation of well-being and self-confidence, and it is not something that will disappear or change because of Covid,” said DP Sharma, Director, Professional Products, L’Oréal India.

“According to a survey by Redquanta, salon visits are among the three activities people missed most during lockdown, with 56% saying they missed salon visits. Therefore, we expect a good and quite quick recovery of the salon industry once the lockdown ends,” he added

L’Oréal is working to retrain staff, taking into account new guidelines and procedures, but also ensuring that customers can receive services in a shorter time.

The beauty and personal care industry is one of the fastest growing consumer products sectors in India. According to a report by the Consulate General of Israel, Mumbai – Department of Economics, the industry is estimated to be worth USD 8 billion and India’s per capita spending on beauty and personal care is increasing in line with India’s GDP growth.

The industry includes businesses such as beauty salons, hairdressers, salons and spas, clinics and academic institutions.

“The industry has come together better than ever before to create, train and implement the new Health and Safety Quality Protocol. There is also a separate initiative to promote this industry to provide reassurance to all customers. This is to ensure that salons, whether they are a single salon or a chain, retain their customers. We will also take more steps to help all bodies in the industry in the spirit of cooperation to address safety concerns,” said Vikram Bhatt, Founder, Enrich Salons.