Sheru Aangrish, founder of the legendary Sheru Classic, has started a petition calling on India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to re-open gyms.
India’s economy has taken a huge blow due to the coronavirus pandemic and the cracks are starting to show. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced during the week that he had no new plans to re-open the nation’s gyms, which have been closed since late March.
Modi announced plans for a slow re-opening of some of India’s businesses that were deemed essential, but gyms were not on the list. Sheru Aangrish, founder of the SHERU Classic, has started circulating a petition to re-open India’s gyms. He is calling on Modi to “save the fitness industry.”
“With the decision of the government to not open the gyms, as it is not included in the essentials, the livelihood of the many people has gone for a halt. A gym is not merely a place of work sufficing the occupation of the owners or the staff working there, but it’s a focal point for so many professions and business that goes on around it,” the petition reads.
Clearly, India is grappling with some of the same issues we have here in the United States relating to both the economic impact of the coronavirus and the threat it poses to public health and safety. In India, just over 12,000 people have died of the coronavirus, but an estimated 140 million have lost their jobs and are facing extreme threats such as poverty and starvation. The total suspension of public transport across India’s major city centers has left families separated, scattered across the country with no real means to reconnect or find employment. Experts predict the number of people facing starvation in India will double this year, to nearly 265 million, due to the pandemic and its associated shutdown.
As Aangrish points out in his petition, it’s not just gym-owners who are suffering; many careers that rely on gyms and the associated flow of people have come to a grinding halt.
“Trainers, sports nutrition business supplements, nutritionists, dietitians, sports physiotherapists, and so many other professionals operate their business network from a supplement store, gym etc. This [Re-opening gyms] is all the more a step that is the need of the hour, as it is a place for building HEALTH AND FITNESS. There is no denying the fact that exercise and fitness are THE basis of maintaining high immunity,” concludes the petition.
Aangrish makes an interesting point in saying that gyms are needed now more than ever because they help boost immunity. Although physical fitness is important for health (obviously), there are still huge risks that come with re-opening gyms and allowing people to be using communal equipment in close contact with one another, even with safety precautions — like routine disinfecting — in place. Clearly, Sheru Aangrish has had enough and decided the time has come to reopen gyms. What do you think?
