Covid effect: No work and no play, playschools go belly-up

The small playschool chains — already operating on razor-thin margins, and with no new admissions this year — have been among the first to fold up. (Photo: Getty Image)

Hemanth Sagar, 33, founder of a chain of 25 preschools in Bengaluru, has watched his schools shut down one by one in the last six months. “Only six of them are up now. If things don’t improve, I will have no option but to exit completely after December,” said Sagar, who worked with Hindustan Lever before starting his first Young World International Preschool in 2012. He has already started looking for a job.

In the National Capital Region, Arvind…