The Tamil Nadu government has announced an ex-gratia of ₹2,000 each to 26,413 barbers in 17 districts, who had not registered with any labour welfare board but whose livelihood has been affected due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

The State government has accepted the proposal of the Commissioner of Revenue Administration based on the approval of the State Executive Committee to sanction over ₹5.28 crore to 17 District Collectors from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) in this regard, an official release said.

These 26,413 unregistered barbers are from Chengalpattu (1,872), Chennai (2,094), Cuddalore (2,024), Dharmapuri (1,806), Kanniyakumari (429), Madurai (1,751), Nagapattinam (899), Pudukkottai (1,673), Ramanathapuram (809), Tenkasi (1,653), Thanjavur (2,451), The Nilgiris (314), Tiruchi (2,925), Tiruvarur (1,212), Tirunelveli (1,020), Thoothukudi (1,023) and Tiruppur (2,458) districts.

Earlier, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami had in May announced an ex-gratia of ₹2,000 each for the unregistered barbers affected by the lockdown.