Blind masseurs and buskers hardly earning a living now

KUALA LUMPUR: Blind masseurs and buskers are finding it difficult to earn a living due to the social distancing brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Certified Blind Masseurs Asso-ciation chairman Lee Sheng Chow said the industry and community needed the Government’s support.

While acknowledging social distancing along with the movement control order (MCO) was necessary, Lee noted these measures had left them with no income.

“The MCO has pushed us off the cliff. We support the government’s decision but we need support as well, ” said Lee, whose four decades of blindness was cause by Behçet’s syndrome.

Under the MCO and the conditional MCO, massage centres are not allowed to operate.

Lee said there were 2,000 members of the blind community, around the country, who are working in the massage industry.

Lee, who owns a massage centre with 30 staff, said the industry would collapse if they didn’t get help.

“There is no way we can change our jobs. We can’t go into a new normal, ” said Lee, who hoped local councils could waive the licensing fees for this year and even the next.

Busker Rosmaria Ahmad, 42, has also been affected badly by the MCO, saying that she has had no income for the past two months.

The mother of two, from Kelantan, who now resides in Kuala Lumpur, said that she was able to earn about RM800 to RM1,000 a month prior to the MCO.

‘We don’t know how long we can survive. We have no other income option, ” said Rosmaria who lives in a shoplot, which she rents with a friend.

She added that they got help from non-governmental organisations.

Malaysian Association for the Blind chief executive George Tho-mas said the MCO has led to a lot of hardship for the blind community.

He said some of the subsidies and grants announced through the stimulus package weren’t accessible to the blind.

Most of them were were employed as freelance masseurs, buskers and petty traders, with no contributions to Social Security Organisation or the Employees Provident Fund, he said.