Shared by @GemsOfBollywood — True celebrity – @swati_gs – founder of Gems of Bollywood.…

Shared by @GemsOfBollywood — True celebrity – @swati_gs – founder of Gems of Bollywood. Bringing change where it matters.

Just returned from a village in Haryana, entirely home to Hindu nai (barber) community, where a group of youths are trying to re-enter the trade.

My visit was in response to a Twitter post by NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo who met the villagers last month on their request, and assured them of government aid through specific schemes. Kanoongo had appealed to organisations to step in. Thus, my visit.

Met Anil Sain who is taking a lead in this (pic 1). He has prepared a list of 31 persons from this village – men and women – who want to pursue this profession.

I met them, and we charted the plan ahead – how to enrol in schemes, how to get job, how to open own set-up, what support they need. Anil runs a salon started by his father, named Krishna salon, and is the only resident to do so.

Anil’s motivation to do this, he says, stems from high demand in public for Hindu barbers, especially after series of cases where barbers from a specific community have been caught on camera using spit for face massage. He says Hindus “have been driven out” of this trade and are now largely engaged in menial jobs or agriculture labour.

Now, this work can be pursued by anyone irrespective of birth. But my conversations revealed that the youth here feel they have a natural skill and drive for it due to an ancestral connection and want to re-join the trade when it’s booming.

In my first visit, we got paperwork done for 12 people at a government centre. A volunteer with experience in govt paperwork is helping @sewanyaya in this project, where we hope to see results in a month’s time.